■■in- 

REMINISCENCES 



FRIEDRICH FROEBEL. 



BY 

BARONESS BJ VON MARENHOLZ-BULOW. 
11 

By MRS. HORACE MANN. 



WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF FRIED RICH FROEBEL 
By EMILY SHIRREFF. 




BOSTON: 

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK: 

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 

1877. 



\ 



U-]^ 



Copyright. 1877. 
By MARY MANN. 

IScLdOitiMgt 

Univ. of Mick. 
F&B2 id34 



University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
Cambridge. 






NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



THOSE who are truly interested in the Remi- 
niscences of Froebel will wish to know more 
particulars of the history of his life than are given 
in these recollections of the last four years of it. 
In the Appendix will be found a paper by Mrs. 
Emily Shirreff, President of the Froebel Society 
of London, and author of the " Kindergarten," 
" Principles of Froebel's System," and ** Intellec- 
tual Education of Women," read at the monthly 
meeting, June, 1876. . 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. My First Meeting with Froebel . . . i 

II. Froebel in Liebenstein . . . . ii 

III. Diesterweg and Froebel in Liebenstein . 22 

IV. Middendorff 35 

V. The Summer of 1850 in Liebenstein . . 49 

VI. Visit of Dr. Gustav Kuhne .... 61 

VII. Visit of Dr. Hiecke . ... . .. -78 

VIII. Educational Value of Festivals ... 97 

IX. Child-Festival at Altenstein . . . .104 

X. Herr von Wydenbrugk 124 

XL Dr. R. Benfey and Teacher Hermann Posche 149 

XIL Dr. Wichard Lange 165 

XIII. The Last Summer in Liebenstein . . -173 

XIV. Second Visit of Diesterweg . . . . 177 
XV. Visit of Herr Bormann 194 

XVI. The Prohibition of the Kindergarten in 

Prussia 197 

XVII. Visit of Varnhagen von Ense . . . 203 

XVIII. Teachers' Convention 256 

XIX. Last Days of Froebel 288 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

CHAPTER I. 

MY FIRST MEETING WITH FROEBEL. 

IN the year 1849, at the end of May, I arrived at the 
Baths of Liebenstein, in Thuringia, and took up my 
abode in the same house as in the previous year. After 
the usual salutations, my landlady, in answer to my in- 
quiry as to what was happening in the place, told me that 
a few weeks before, a man had settled down on a small 
farm near the springs, who danced and played with the 
village children, and therefore went by the name of " the 
old fool." Some days after I met on my walk this so- 
called " old fool." A tall, spare man, with long gray 
hair, was leading a troop of village children between the 
ages of three and eight, most of them barefooted and 
but scantily clothed, who marched two and two up a hill, 
where, having marshalled them for a play, he practised 
with them a song belonging to it. The loving patience 
and abandon with w-hich he did this, the whole bearing 
of the man while the children played various games 
under his direction, were so moving, that tears came into 
my companion's eyes as well as into my own, and I said 



2 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

to her, " This man is called an ' old fool ' by these 
people; perhaps he is one of those men who are ridiculed 
or stoned by contemporaries, and to whom future genera- 
tions build monuments." 

The play being ended, I approached the man with the 
words, " You are occupied, I see, in the education of the 
people y 

" Yes," said he, fixing kind, friendly eyes upon me, 
" that I am." 

"It is what is most needed in our time," was my 
response. " Unless the people become other than they 
are, all the beautiful ideals of which we are now dream- 
ing as practicable for the immediate future will not be 
realized." 

"That is true," he replied; "but the 'other people' 
will not come unless we educate them. Therefore we 
must be busy with the children." 

" But where shall the right education come from ? It 
often seems to me that what we call education is mostly 
folly and sin, which confines poor human nature in the* 
strait-jacket of conventional prejudices and unnatural 
laws, and crams so much into it that all originality is 
stifled." 

" Well, perhaps I have found something that may pre- 
vent this and make a free development possible. Will 
you," continued the man, whose name I did not yet 
know, " come with me and visit my institution ? We will 
then speak further, and understand each other better." 

I was ready, and he led me across a meadow to a 
country-house which stood in the midst of a large yard, 
surrounded by outhouses. He had rented this place to 
educate young girls for kindergartners. In a large room. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 3 

in the middle of which stood a large table, he introduced 
me to his scholars, and told me the different duties 
assigned to each in the housekeeping. Among these 
scholars was Henrietta Breyman, his niece. He then 
opened a large closet containing his play-materials, and 
gave some explanation of their educational aim, which 
at the moment gave me very little light on his method. 
I retain the memory of only one sentence: "Man is a 
creative being." 

But the man and his whole manner made a deep im- 
pression upon me. 1 knew that I had to do with a true 
Man, with an original, unfalsified nature. When one of 
his pupils called him Mr. Froebel, I remembered having 
once heard of a man of the name who wished to edu- 
cate children by pla}\ and that it had seemed to me a 
very perverted view, for I had only thought of empty 
play, without any serious purpose. 

As Froebel accompanied me part of the way back to 
Liebenstein, which was about half an hour's distance 
from his dwelling, we spoke of the disappointment of 
the high expectations that had been called forth by the 
movements of 1848, when neither of the parties was 
right or in a condition to bring about the desired ameli- 
oration. 

" Nothing comes without a struggle," said Froebel ; 
*' opposing forces excite it, and they find their equilib- 
rium by degrees. Strife creates nothing by itself, it only 
clears the air. New seeds must be planted to germinate 
and grow, if we will have the tree of humanity blossom. 
We must, however, take care not to cut away the roots 
out of which all growth comes, as the destructive ele- 
ment of to-day is liable to do. We cannot tear the 



4 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

present from the past or from the future. Past, present, 
and future are the trinity of time. The future demands 
the renewing of hfe, which must begin in the present. 
In the children lies the seed-corn of the future ! " 

Thus Froebel expressed himself concerning the move- 
ments of the time, always insisting that the historical 
(traditional) must be respected, and that the new crea- 
tion can only come forth out of the old. 

" That which follows is always conditioned upon that 
which goes before," he would repeat. " I make that 
apparent to the children through my educational pro- 
cess." (The Second Gift of his play-materials shows this 
in concrete things.) 

But while Froebel, with his clear comprehension, cast 
his eyes over the movements of the time, neither joining 
with the precipitate party of progress nor with the party 
of reaction that would hinder all progress, he was counted 
by those in authority among the revolutionists, and con- 
demned with his kindergartens. He repeated again and 
again : "The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands 
of women — the mothers — than in the possessors of 
power, or of those innovators who for the most part do 
not understand themselves. We must cultivate women, 
who are the educators of the human race, else the new 
generation cannot accomplish its task." This was almost 
always the sum of his discourse. 



FROEBEL'S NORMAL TEACHING. 

Already on this first day of my acquaintance with 
Froebel the agreement was made that I should take part 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 5 

as often as possible in the instruction given to the pupils 
he was training. 

The fire with which he uttered and illustrated his 
views gave them a peculiar stamp, and the deep convic- 
tion with which he demonstrated their justice was some- 
times overpowering and sublime. He became entirely 
another person when his genius came upon him; the 
stream of his words then poured forth like a fiery rain. 
It often came quite unexpectedly and on slight occa- 
sions ; as in our walks, for instance, the contemplation 
of a stone or plant often led to profound outbursts upon 
the universe. But the foundation of all his discourses 
was always his theory of development, — the law of uni- 
versal development applied to the human being. 

One needed to see Froebel with his class, in order to 
realize his genius and the strong power of conviction 
which inspired him. No one could avoid receiving a 
deep impression of it who saw him in that circle of 
young maidens, teaching with that profound enthusiasm 
which only an unswerving conviction of the truth uttered 
lends to the discourse, with a love for the subject which 
communicated his enthusiasm to his hearers, and an 
untiring patience. 

The greater number of his scholars may not have fully 
comprehended his words, for that which he was teaching 
often far transcended their accustomed sphere of thought, 
and his strange mode of speech made it difficult for 
them to understand him ; but the spirit of the subject 
penetrated their hearts, and in the course of his teaching 
developed a partial understanding of it. This was true 
only of those who could understand with the heart, and 
in whom also love for the subject was really awakened. 



6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Yet it cannot be denied that some of his scholars carried 
into their own subsequent activity nothing but the prac- 
tical occupations of the kindergarten, and often, alas ! 
an assumption of a knowledge which is not real knowl- 
edge. 

But the learning of the practical occupations and 
plays in their logical connection, and with their intel- 
lectual meaning, gave each of these young maidens at 
least a limited comprehension of the subject. The full 
measure of it, indeed, can be appreciated only by the 
highly gifted and highly developed. 

The understanding of his often obscure style was 
facilitated by the accompanying demonstrations. Tears 
would often be seen in the eyes of his scholars, when 
with his overflowing love of humanity he would speak 
of the helplessness of children, exposed to all harms by 
the arbitrary way in which they are managed, but whom 
God has intrusted to the female sex to be moulded into 
true men and at the same time into children of God, to 
be led back consciously to him from whom they had 
come forth. And then he further emphasized the great 
responsibility which was imposed upon women as educa- 
tors of the human race, — a responsibility doubled in our 
day, whose problems are so great and difficult to solve 
that the male sex alone is not able to solve them. 
" 'I'he immature must become mature ; the immature are 
especially the women and children whose human dignity 
has not been in full measure recognized hitherto," he 
used to say, when he spoke of the new tasks of the 
female sex. He was most difficult to understand when 
he spoke of the application of his " law " through the 
gifts ; and also when he treated of the first impressions 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 7 

of the outward world upon the very young child, which 
were given by concrete things, symbols, as it were, for 
the later apprehension of spiritual facts. 

Even the most developed of his scholars were hardly 
capable of clearly reproducing this truly most difficult 
and obscure side of his instruction. I saw this from 
their note-books in which they wrote down the contents 
of his lessons to them. On this account, therefore, I 
have ever since conducted this part of the instruction in 
quite another manner than he was accustomed to do. 

But his eyes sparkled with delight when he pointed 
out to me, here and there, in these note-books, passages 
which showed a deeper insight and understanding of 
the subjects he had treated. Still more would his joy 
break forth when I would further develop and explain 
the illustrations which he privately gave to me, and when 
I showed that I had reflected upon what I had received 
from him. 

" How did you know that ? " he often asked me when 
he was explaining the meaning of his play-materials, and 
I anticipated him. " I have not yet spoken of that." 
My answer, " I can infer it from my own recollection 
of the intellectual demands of my earliest childhood," 
made him quite happy, and he would reply, " You see, 
then, that it is true." 

And so he would say, when I communicated to him 
at that time some of my own very short notes of his 
teachings, as, for example, an aphoristical statement like 
the following : " The first circle in the unfolding of the 
earliest child-life is unconscious nature bound by ne- 
cessity." 

" Childhood, in this first period of life, can only find 



8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

its antitype in the external phenomena of the sensible 
world, from the crudest types of nature onward, which 
prefigure their organisms. The elementary finds itself 
again only in the elementary." 

"These images wake the soul-germs that are related 
to all nature, which, on the other hand, is a symbol of 
the spiritual. The still unthinking mind of the child 
can be awakened and taught only through symbols or 
the higher mental images. Natural phenomena furnish 
these symbols, but not in the elementary form which 
corresponds with the still unarticulated simplicity of the 
child's soul. They must first be selected out of the 
great manifoldness of things by the thinking mind. 
They must reflect the universal law that gives its form 
to the smallest as well as to the largest object, to the 
flowers as well as to the celestial bodies." 

"The simplest forms (types), which lie at the founda- 
tion of the fabric of the world, lay also the foundation 
in the minds of children for the understanding of the 
world, which expresses God's thought (spirit). These 
simplest and unarticulated forms are the fundamental 
forms of crystallization." (The solid forms of Froebel's 
second Gift.) 

"The norms of all the organisms and all the phe- 
nomena of nature are the universal properties of things, 
that which is peculiar to them all in spite of the infinite 
variety of form ; and this universe, which expresses itself 
in form and color, in relations of size and weight, in 
tone, in number, etc., is to be stamped in the most ele- 
mentary manner on the child's soul, through his eye, as 
fundamental form, fundamental color, fundamental tone, 
— archetypes as it were of ideas." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 9 

"Definite, clear, and sharply drawn conceptions fol- 
low such logically ordered ideas in the subsequent circle 
of development. A correct comprehension of external, 
material things is a preliminary to a just comprehension 
of intellectual relations." 

"Only that knowledge furthers the ripening of the 
mind which mounts up through its own activity and 
effort from the perception and contemplation of external 
objects to the thoughts or the conceptions which dwell 
in things. Only through a gradual climbing up on the 
ladder of knowledge does the child's mind rise out of 
its own darkness to the hght of its own consciousness. 
Only from the antitype which makes objective the child's 
own inner being can this consciousness be gained clearly. 
So that the A B C of things must precede the A B C of 
words, and give to the words (abstractions) their true 
foundations." 

" It is because these foundations fail so often in the 
present time that there are so few men who think in- 
dependently, and express skilfully their inborn, divine 
ideas. The instruction forced upon the child's mind, 
which does not correspond to its inner stage of devel- 
opment and its measure of power, robs him of his own 
original view of things, and with it of his greatest power 
and capacity to impress the stamp of his own individ- 
uality upon his being. Hence arises a departure from 
nature which leads to caricature," etc."*^ 

So obscure and difficult to understand were Froebel's 

* What is quoted here is only for those initiated into Froebel's system, 
and is referred for explanation to my writings, particularly to that which 
treats of the method. It has found no other relevance here than so far as 
it concerns the relation mentioned. 



lO REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

distinctions, and so much veiled was his "Idea" by his 
peculiar mode of speech, that one could cull out the 
peculiar meaning of it only after one had penetrated 
his method of intuition {Anschaimngsweise). Single 
lightning flashes often illuminated the dark way, and 
the truth which he himself received pre-eminently by 
inspiration was communicated to his hearers also in- 
tuitively as it were. 

I had many opportunities to notice his intercourse 
with the princes of Meiningen and Weimar, whom I 
had interested in him and his subject, and who often 
accompanied me in my visits to him. He was truly 
modest, but it was a marked trait of character in him 
that he felt his dignity as a man and his own importance 
personally as the bearer of an idea. Real appreciation, 
however, easily misled him to take for granted the full 
recognition of his " divine idea," and, rejoicing in that, 
he could undoubtedly appear arrogant and boastful to 
those who did not know that he never looked upon the 
idea as his own, but regarded himself only as the God- 
favored bearer of it ; but the haughtiness of mediocrity 
was wholly foreign to him. 

Therefore I was ot^ten vexed when some of the fre- 
quenters of the baths of Liebenstein, whom I took to 
see him, allowed themselves to treat him, on account 
of the plainness of his external appearance, which was 
not unlike that of an old village schoolmaster, in his 
old-fashioned long coat, with his hair parted, and of the 
childlike simplicity of his manners, with a degree of 
contempt, or indeed as an inferior ! But he was seldom 
moved by what concerned himself personally, though 
very much so by everything that undervalued or slighted 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. II 

his cause. When in conversation touching his idea, any 
learned scholasticism undertook to condemn it without 
having arrived at any understanding of it, a violent in- 
dignation was kindled in him. When he had taken for 
granted a capacity to understand him, and yet met a 
motiveless opposition, he could come crashing in, as I 
experienced in one case, when he defended the truth of 
his views like an enraged lion. 



CHAPTER II. 

FROEBEL IN LIEBENSTEIN. 

WOULD that men did not always demand of ge- 
niuses who bring the Great and Good into the 
world, that with this extraordinary gift they should unite 
all human perfections! This unreasonable requisition 
often causes them to be misunderstood and calumniated 
when it is discovered that as men they do not always 
stand upon the height of their genius. We forget that 
the heavenly light hardly ever illuminates to its pos- 
sessor anything but the field whereon he is to build, 
but cannot penetrate through the whole mind ; and by 
the side of the divine inspiration the natural power 
stands as yet unpenetrated by the light, which leaves 
room also for the unspiritualized powers (^ddiiwnisches) 
and likewise for human weaknesses, 

Froebel was no exception to this rule, and not only in 
his lifetime, but even now, after his death, has had to 
suffer from manifold unjust judgments, among which are 



12 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

those of some of his earlier pupils in Keilhau (1817- 
27), who cannot complain enough of what they call the 
defects of some of his branches of instruction, without 
considering all that stood in the way of bringing his 
method immediately into complete working order. The 
new always stands in opposition to established claims, 
and has first to clear the ground of what has become 
obsolete before it can be effective. In the introduction 
of new ideas, their representatives pay no regard to men 
and things that oppose them, and therefore often wound 
sensibly even those who are dearest. 

Froebel often made his friends and relatives suffer 
when their views and interests did not harmonize with 
what he considered necessary or best for the good of his 
idea. But one must in this respect discriminate between 
the lack of sound judgment in a matter of human inter- 
est, and that in a matter which serves the end of self- 
seeking, the latter being the chief motive with the 
majority of mortals. This vulgar self-seeking is never 
known to the real genius, the genuine bearer of an idea, 
for he must offer himself as a sacrifice on the altar of 
this idea. Through his whole life Froebel sacrificed 
himself and his personal interests, also the interests of 
those nearest to him, to the development and propa- 
gation of his idea, and knew no other striving. This 
should not be forgotten by those who have to complain 
of him for some loss of their own. 

In Keilhau, Froebel could only make experiments in 
order to get necessary data for the working out of this 
educational idea. The idea itself was grasped by him 
at first only in the germ, and was still unripe, as well as 
the means of its accomplishment. In the process of 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I3 

fermentation towards a new form in which Froebel found 
himself, he could not, in full measure, fulfil all the duties 
of the practical teacher, any more than could Pestalozzi 
or others of his predecessors. Therefore some com- 
plaints of his pupUs as to gaps in their knowledge may 
be quite justified, since, moreover, the time for instruction 
was much curtailed by the practical labors superadded, 
and by excursions in the fields and woods of Keilhau. 
Yet, not to be unjust, the gain in respect to the forma- 
tion of character and practical ability must be thrown 
into the balance. How very much Froebel did influence 
the moral culture of his pupils is made public by the 
unbounded love and gratitude expressed by the majority 
of them at the time of his death. Even on this side it 
is to be observed that his peculiar mission did not have 
reference to the improvement of instruction, which had 
already been turned into the true path by Pestalozzi, but 
rather consisted in creating a new foundation for edu- 
cation in general, and consequently in working more 
indirectly for the reform of instruction. The new truth 
concerning the nature of childhood which he brought 
out cannot be without influence upon all branches of 
education, and here it was that Froebel knew no yielding 
whenever the jewel of the truth intrusted to him was 
questioned or attacked. 

But on the other hand, he would confess ignorance in 
the most childlike manner, when the application of his 
idea touched points not yet considered by him. He 
frequently said, upon such occasions, "I have not yet 
considered that side of the subject ; I will see ; it may 
be so " : or, " That is new, but it must be right, and we 
must work it out," etc. He would even learn from chil- 



14 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

dren, — or others, — for he was wholly free from that pride 
of knowledge which covers so much emptiness. One 
day when I visited him, he said, his eyes lighting up, 
" To-day is a good day ; much that is new has come to 
me ; almost every morning when I wake this comes to 
me uncalled for, but to-day it was especially bright and 
clear. Yes, this truth is endless, and cannot be ex- 
hausted by thought." 

It was generally extremely difficult to hold him fast to 
one train of thought, for if a new thought struck him he 
often followed it up without any regard for his particular 
theme, and without any consideration for his hearers. 
He was always learning himself as he spoke, and there- 
fore the logic of his discourse suffered exceedingly, so 
that he gave to many the impression of disorderliness of 
thought. Added to this, his peculiar manner of expres- 
sion, the doubling and trebling of words in order to 
make the matter clear, the often -endless interweaving of 
sentences, — all this made him quite unintelligible to the 
ordinary public, and especially to women. 

Sometimes at Liebenstein, when I introduced strangers 
to him to whom he tried to explain his method without 
succeeding according to his wish, he would call on me 
with the request to explain this or that, with the words, 
*' They understand you better." 

Now and then the word "confusion," or something 
similar, fell from the lips of his hearers, but the great 
majority of them were won by the power of the deep 
conviction which expressed itself in every word, even 
before a real understanding of the subject was possible. 
The great majority of women, especially, could not avoid 
being moved when he so strongly appealed to the mater- 
nal feeling. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 15 

Before Froebel was convinced of my deep interest in 
his cause and of my understanding of it, there were mo- 
ments of doubt and distrust on his part. He had been 
deceived so often, both in his expectations of a correct 
comprehension of his method, and in the assistance 
promised him for the purpose of its introduction, that he 
feared dilettanteism, and a quickly blazing fire of straw, 
and would sometimes unjustly take these for granted. 
Only after I had written several anonymous articles for 
public journals which he used to praise beyond their 
desert, and after our intercourse had convinced him of 
the earnestness of my interest, was I unreservedly initi- 
ated into the subject. 

After I had accepted Froebel's educational method 
in respect to its pedagogical principles and practical 
means, I still lacked the final basis and point of depart- 
ure of his views. I begged him to disclose to me in full 
the deeper basis of his theory of the world ; he replied : 
" No, my last word I take with me into the grave ; the 
time for it has not yet come." 

In vain I urged on him the duty of uttering this last 
word, even if not publicly, until one day at my house he 
read some leaves of an old manuscript and begged per- 
mission to take with him the volume containing them. 
When I went to see him the next day he said : " Now 
you shall know my last word ; I have been reading in 
your book nearly the whole night, and see that you have 
my idea and therefore will not misunderstand me." 

Although he construed several general theories in the 
sense of his idea when he found related ideas of others, 
yet he had found in mine some nearly related original 
views of things which facilitated a deeper penetration into 



l6 REMINISCENCES OF FR0E13EL. 

his idea, and supplied me by degrees with the proper 
key for the understanding of it. His explanations alone 
could not bring this about ; they were too aphoristic and 
unintelligible in expression. Only a longer study and 
my own working led in the course of years to that, 
and even then only to the first beginnings of the un- 
derstanding of an idea which still needs centuries for 
its development and maturity, — an idea which Froebel 
received from the hands of his predecessors as a seed 
from the flowers of the past, and which he left to the 
present only in germ, so that legions of thinkers of the 
following age and in different departments may develop 
if and bring it to maturity as an element of the general 
idea of the time. The present has only to make the 
first practical application to the child in the cradle and 
in the garden of children, and thus to prepare the ground 
for future generations, which alone can complete what 
the present has begun. 

The reproach of mysticism applied to Froebel's system 
has a certain justification so long as the theory lying 
at the foundation of his educational idea is not com- 
pletely understood and scientifically established ; and 
thus far there is little prospect that this will really hap- 
pen very soon, since the great mass of the representatives 
of the cause can only comprehend its outside. The 
conflicts of the present must bring more of the problems 
of the time nearer to their solution before the solution 
of this problem which concerns mankind most deeply 
can come upon the stage. In spite of the slight under- 
standing of his idea that Froebel found in his contem- 
poraries, he was thoroughly convinced that the time for it 
would come. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. " 1 7 

" If three hundred years after my death my method 
of education shall be completely established according 
to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven," he replied to me 
once when I was lamenting over its slow and imperfect 
advance. 

Froebel found in Liebenstein a haven of rest for his 
last days. The residence in large cities had always been 
harassing and irksome to him. 

" I was born for country life and intercourse with 
nature," he declared very truly. He did not understand 
the language of the great world. Literary culture, ac- 
cording to the prescription of faculties and authorities, 
was foreign to his self-taught and original fashion of 
thought, and he was ill fitted for the discussion of the 
claims of science in this or that department. Still less 
was he fitted for the conflicts with intrigue, vulgarity, 
and malevolence which inet him in the great centres. 
Therefore he was happy to have escaped them when he 
arranged his farm-house near Liebenstein, after he had 
given a course of instruction to kindergartners in Dres- 
den the winter before. 

Here he was again surrounded by the home atmos- 
phere of Thuringia, and by beautiful nature, with which he 
had always held his most intimate and comforting com- 
munion ; and his trustful, receptive young scholars gave 
him an opportunity to state his method without meeting 
with opposition from an imperfect knowledge of the sub- 
ject. Here he was able to lay the foundation for the 
general education of the female sex, — the educational 
vocation, — and every one who attended his instructions 
must have seen how the happiness that inspired him was 
reflected in the enthusiasm of his pupils. 



l8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The interest in his cause shown by the princes of 
Meiningen and Weimar, especially by her Highness, my 
patroness and friend, the Duchess Ida of Weimar, who 
so often accompanied me to Froebel's institution, re- 
newed his courage. I was obliged to mediate with the 
gracious and amiable princess for much that Froebel 
wished for in the interest of his cause. Through her a 
suitable location was at last obtained for his institution. 

On a walk which I once took with him we came, in 
the neighborhood of Liebenstein, upon the small ducal 
shooting-castle of Marienthal, charmingly situated among 
the green fields. Froebel stood still, and said, " Look 
round about you, Frau Marenholz. This would be a 
beautiful place for our institution, and even the name 
would suit it so well, — Marienthal, the vale of the Marys, 
whom we wish to bring up as the mothers of humanity, 
as the first Mary brought up the Saviour of the world." 

I remarked to him that he might petition the duke to 
grant him the building which was standing unused, and 
that I would endeavor to assist him in the matter through 
the Duchess Ida. So it came to pass, yet only after a 
long delay, since many objections were raised by the 
authorities. Through the continual prompting of her 
brother by the duchess this end was reached only after 
months. I had the pleasure of surprising Froebel with 
the official permission after he had almost given up the 
hope. One circumstance contributed to bring about this 
permission sooner, by making still more clear to the 
duchess the inappropriateness of the farm-house inhab- 
ited by Froebel. 

Froebel had been invited with me to dine with the 
duchess, and had put on a coat which had been laid 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I9 

away tor a long time in a closet immediately contiguous 
to the cow-house, and the coat was completely penetrated 
with the odor of the stable. As this odor also perme- 
ated the instruction-room, from which a small door 
opened into the cow-house, Froebel had not perceived 
it himself, being accustomed to it, but the duchess noticed 
it as soon as she came into the, dining-room. Thinking 
the smell came from out of doors through the window, 
she had it closed. The smell still remained. On inform- 
ing her of the cause in a whisper, she was much amused, 
and so were the young princesses her daughters. Froe- 
bel joined heartily when we told him the cause of our 
hilarity, and said, "Your Highness sees now how neces- 
sary it is to remove our institution to Marienthal." 

After dinner the now reigning Grand Duke of Weimar, 
then heir presumptive, came in with his wife and several 
ladies and gentlemen to visit the duchess, and Froebel 
was requested to make a statement of his idea to them. 
I begged hhii to speak clearly and briefly, as was appro- 
priate, and was astonished at his unwonted success ; 
indeed, he spoke with an enthusiasm that moved all his 
hearers. The duke, whom I had already, during his fre- 
quent visits to Liebenstein, made acquainted with Froe- 
bel's cause, and who had been present at the plays of 
the children in the institution, retracted his former cen- 
sure of Froebel's obscure style. 

" He speaks like a prophet," he said now. 

This expression of acknowledgment pleased Froebel 
greatly. He said to me, " Do you know what warmed 
me up so much to-day .? The beautiful harmony of the 
architecture of that dining-hall ! I felt as if I were in a 
temple ! " 



20 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The marble pillars which supported the vaulted roof 
had made an impression on his artistic eyes. I con- 
stantly observed this feeling for harmony and beauty in 
Froebel, who had not been educated to the practice of 
any art. In nature, nothing escaped him ; every tree 
which embellished the surrounding country, every grace- 
ful curved line, every blending of color, every lighting 
up of the heavens, everything, indeed, which expressed 
beauty and harmony, was perceived by him, and often 
served, on our walks with the scholars, for some deep 
interpretation of nature, and some enthusiastic praise of 
God's creation, which made an indelible impression 
upon them. But, on the other hand, the smallest want 
of harmony was annoying to him. 

" I miss harmony of color here," he said once as we 
were passing a bed of dahlias in which all the colors 
were confusedly mingled. 

This sharpness and fineness of sense extended to all 
his organs. At great distances he perceived the per- 
fume of plants and viands and wines. I looked upon 
this as a proof of how he was fitted by nature in all 
respects for the mission with which he was charged from 
God. Even the facility of speech denied to him, and his 
lack of literary expression, co-operated to the same end. 
It is not likely that he would have known how to em- 
body his ideas in maitcr so completely, if he had been 
able to make himself entirely intelligible in words. A 
certain one-sidedness and even limitation is often neces- 
sary to a reforming genius in order to keep him within 
the limits of his calling, and prevent him from wander- 
ing away from it. Universal geniuses are rare, and Froe- 
bel in no way belonged to them. But in spite of this 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 2 1 

undeniable gift of prophecy, Froebel had a warm heart 
for his fellow-men, irrespective of his work, and helped 
wherever he could with the same disinterestedness as 
that with which he served his idea. 

Middendorff told me this little anecdote. Froebel 
came home one day much heated by a walk in the 
neighborhood, and wished to change his clothes. When 
his wife opened the wardrobe she exclaimed with alarm, 
"The closet is almost empty! thieves have been here." 
Froebel answered, laughing, " I am the thief! " And he 
then told her that the inhabitants of a neighboring vil- 
lage which had been destroyed by fire had been there that 
morning and asked for assistance, and as he had no 
money, he had felt obliged to give them some of his 
effects. This warm heart was often concealed under a 
harsh and rude exterior, which is usually the case with 
those who work most deeply, working inwardly. Chil- 
dren are the least disturbed by this, and know by intui- 
tion the hearts that love them. When I went with Froe- 
bel through the village streets, the children of the cot- 
tages came running to him from the doorsteps, as to 
their own father ; even the smallest, who had hardly 
learned to walk, clung to him, and accompanied him to 
some distance. With what love he embraced the little 
ones I It shone from his eyes and attracted their hearts 
magnetically. It was the love of humanity, whose germ 
he beheld in the children. His words, uttered on such 
an occasion, " I see in every child the possibility of a 
perfect man," made an undying impression on me. 

In Marienthal I saw a mother of two children who had 
attended Froebel's kindergarten for a time, and had often 
been with him, come to take leave at the end of her resi- 



2 2 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

dence at Liebenstein. One of the boys, five years old, 
clung sobbing on Froebel's neck and would not go. 
When the another said he might remain without her, he 
was quite willing, although he had always shown great 
love for his mother. Perhaps the child's spiritual and in- 
tellectual wants had been fully satisfied here for the first 
time, and he felt that gratification which all development 
brings to the human soul. 



CHAPTER III. 

DIESTERWEG AND FROEBEL IN LIEBENSTEIN. 

IN July, 1849, Diesterweg came to Liebenstein. Im- 
mediately after the greeting with my old friend, I 
told him of Froebel and of my acquaintance with him, 
and how he went by the cognomen of "old fool," at 
which he laughed heartily. "To-morrow morning," I 
said, "you must go with me to Froebel's class and make 
his acquaintance." 

" O, you must excuse me," he replied. " I dislike fool- 
ery in methods of education." 

But when I had said what was necessary to convince 
him that there was no such "foolery," he consented to 
accompany me the next day to Froebel's dwelling in the 
farm-house. 

The instruction had already begun, and Froebel was 
so much absorbed in his subject, which was presented 
with much enthusiasm, that, as usual, he did not observe 
my entrance with Diesterweg by the open door behind 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 23 

him. Diestervveg listened at first with some irony on 
his countenance, but by degrees this expression entirely 
vanished and gave place to the deepest attention, and 
at last his emotion increased till it broke forth in tears. 
Those who know Diesterweg admit that such an expres- 
sion of feeling could not be drawn from him by any every- 
day occurrence. 

When Froebel ended his lesson and I introduced 
Diestervveg to him, the latter greeted him with great 
heartiness, which was the more gratifying to Froebel 
because he had heard of a previous expression of Dies- 
terweg's which did not sound very favorable to his cause. 
The two men felt themselves drawn together, as was 
apparent on this first interview, and Froebel explained 
his ideas enthusiastically and with unusual clearness, 
and I was obliged to remind Diesterweg of the dining- 
hour, which was about to strike, in order to bring the 
interview to a close for the time. 

On our way back Diesterweg kept stopping every 
instant to express to me his great satisfaction with what 
he had heard from Froebel. I felt in every word he said, 
how his mind, open to everything noble and high, was 
impressed. 

"The man is actually something of a seer," he ex- 
claimed. " He looks into the innermost nature of the 
child as no one else has done. I am wholly taken cap- 
tive by him." 

" Yes," I replied, " he impresses one like all genuine 
enthusiasm for truth and human weal." 

From that time, almost every morning, Diesterweg 
came under my window with the " Mother and Cosset 
Songs" under his arm, calling out to me, "Frau von 



24 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Marenholz, it is time to go to school ! " And as often as 
possible we went to walk with Froebel in the afternoons, 
to converse upon "the Idea" or other views. In bad 
weather the two educators generally came to my house, 
and we held a council to consider how the new educa- 
tional method could be furthered. Diesterweg requested 
of me a first article for his " Weg Weiser," which he had 
after two days, and which Froebel enjoyed even to tears, 
in spite of its trifling importance. 

The name of " Eisel and Beisel " given us by one of 
the guests at Liebenstein, in harmless fun, spread more 
widely and gave occasion to the Princess Amalia, daugh- 
ter of the Duchess Ida, afterwards Princess Henry of 
Netherlands, to bestow a more fitting appellation, as 
she said. As I was added as the third in the group, we 
were named, within our private circle of intimacy, after 
the Bible expression, "The Way, the Truth, and the 
Life." 

One afternoon when we were together, Diesterweg 
received a letter from Berlin concerning the projected 
Goethe foundation, which was to date from his hundredth 
birthday on the 28th of August of that year (1849), for 
which purpose committees had been organized in various 
cities. Diesterweg was a member of the Berlin commit- 
tee, and told us how various were the views concerning 
the object of the foundation. I suggested an educa- 
tional institution for the culture of genius, since the 
unfettering of the powers of genius in mankind was the 
best tribute that could be paid to Goethe's memory. 

At first Diesterweg laughed, but after thinking awhile 
said, " It is not a bad idea. At the present time it will 
be for the advancement of the people, and it will also 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 25 

promote art. Donations for young artists are already 
proposed." 

We conversed further on the subject, and Froebel, who 
had at first kept perfectly silent, kindled more and more 
as the plan was discussed, and said, "What if you, Frau 
von Marenholz, should try to win over the Grand Duke 
of Weimar for our idea ? As honorary president of the 
Weimar committee he would have much weight." 

I promised to undertake this commission, and found 
a willing listener in the prince, who was always enthusi- 
astic for everything beautiful and good. Soon we had 
the Grand Duke, the Duchess Ida, the Princess Amalia, 
and others of the nobility of Weimar interested in our 
plan, which devoted the Goethe foundation to an edu- 
cational institution, where those children who should 
manifest artistic gifts of a high order in the kinder- 
garten that was to be connected with it should be fur- 
nished a complete education in the art for which they 
should show talent. 

Diesterweg wrote a little essay, entitled "The Goethe 
Foundation," and la" Summons " for the newspapers, 
in order to gain general concurrence in our plan. 

Diesterweg said in his article : " We consecrate this 
institution to general human culture, and to art in par- 
ticular. A foundation worthy of Goethe must be crea- 
tive and productive at once, that is, it shall cultivate 
men into productive beings, who shall bring forth new 
creations in the field of art." And again : "What might 
not be the consequences if the dominion of acquired 
dead notions, and that intellectual servitude which has 
been propagated from generation to generation hitherto, 
could be completely banished, and man become once 



2 6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

more his own teacher and his own educator ? " " What 
Pestalozzi strove for his whole life long, — the restora- 
tion of the sanctity of family life, the training of mothers 
to their educational vocation, the guidance and culture 
of women in general that they may take the fitting point 
of view for the educators of the human race, — this is 
what he has accomplished, and for this he has found 
practical means," etc. 

These words are significant of Diesterweg's high rec- 
ognition of Froebel and his cause. Froebel also added 
to this paper the following lines : — 

" It is to be stated with special emphasis that, although 
art in its ideality is a pure end of itself, it is not dis- 
graced by becoming a means of education. If the human 
race, above all the German nation, is to be brought to 
perfect living and likewise to the appreciation and the 
expression of art, the arts, as the ripe product of crea- 
tiveness, must be protected by an educational system 
whose fundamental idea shall be to contemplate and 
treat man as a creative being. And therefore this edu- 
cational system is worthy of being named as the object 
of a Goethe foundation." 

This object especially occupied us for a long time, 
and there was some prospect of a favorable result. Nev- 
ertheless, this result was not reached. The majority of 
the members of the various committees knew too little 
of Froebel's methods to accept and efficiently support 
the proposals made by the Grand Duke in Weimar and 
Diesterweg in Berlin. The decisive majorities in such 
cases opposed ; these majorities unfortunately do much 
harm to intellectual interests, since ideal aims can hardly 
be appreciated except by minorities. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 2^ 

At the end of August Diesterweg and I came, by 
invitation of the Duchess of Weimar, to celebrate the 
hundredth birthday of Goethe, and found the decision 
was already made. The money collected for the pur- 
pose of the foundation to Goethe was devoted to the 
aid of young artists of slender means. Through Liszt's 
influence in Weimar, the donations were specially be- 
stowed upon musical artists. My struggles against it, 
during a visit on which we met at the Grand Duke's 
castle at Ettersburg, were all in vain. Liszt ever re- 
peated that " One could not help genius yet in its swad- 
dling-clothes." It was not till a later time that I could 
convince him of the importance of Froebel's method ; 
then he promised he would compose songs for the kin- 
dergarten, a promise which yet awaits its fulfilment. 

Froebel, accustomed during his whole life to the dis- 
appointment of cherished hopes, knew how to comfort 
himself for the miscarriage of our plans. Besides his 
gratification at the fulfilment of another wish, he had 
joyfully informed me already in July, that he expected 
one of his earlier Keilhau pupils (Fraulein Levin), who 
would remain with him to undertake the permanent 
direction of his household and institution. Soon after 
she arrived, and (as Froebel expressed it) gave to his 
institution the stamp of family life, which in his view 
was of the highest importance to an institution for edu- 
cation. 

With truly paternal love Froebel embraced all his 
pupils, who on their part felt the greatest love and 
gratitude to him. These affectionate relations in the 
institution touched every one agreeably who entered 
Marienthal, and awakened the sympathies even of those 



28 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Standing farther off; and these sympathies were more 
and more strengthened in the walks taken in common in 
the beautiful environs of Liebenstein. 

When I once expressed to Froebel how much I enjoyed 
the feeling of real familiarity that I found in our circle, 
he said, " Yes, you see that it is only possible where 
there is an idea to bind us together ; only an idea can 
make us spiritually one." 

He said this in a drive which we took to Inselsberg in 
company with his pupils and Diesterweg. We did not 
return until night, and then in a wagon. The clear, 
bright, starry heavens prompted Froebel to point out the 
constellations to his pupils, and to speak of the system 
of worlds sparkling above us. He said, among other 
things : " The firmament, if anything, leads us to recog- 
nize the connection of all that is, and leads us up to 
unity — God. No one of the heavenly bodies is isolated, 
every planet has its centre in the sun of its system. All 
the solar systems are in relation and continual interac- 
tion with each other. That is the condition of all life. 
Everywhere mutual relation of parts. As there above in 
great things an unbroken connection and harmony rule, 
so also here below, even in the smallest thing, every- 
where is the same order and harmony, because the same 
law rules everywhere, the one 'law of God, which ex- 
presses itself in thousand-fold many-sidedness, but in the 
last analysis is one, for God is himself the law. The 
heavenly bodies are organized like the grains of sand, — 
the macrocosm and the microcosm correspond to each 
other exactly ; both are organized wholes, but the organ- 
ization rules from the simplest to the most complex. 
Everywhere in God's creation, in the infinite manifold- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 29 

ness of phenomena, we always come upon unity, and 
must infer it where we do not perceive it. Unless unity 
is continued, unbroken connection is not possible." 

Diesterweg here said, " That is what people call Pan- 
theism." 

Froebel replied : "And very unjustly ; the pantheistic 
view is outgrown, and we have nothing more to do with 
an inseparable Unity, but with Trinity. Trinity has 
become the corner-stone which the people have rejected 
because they do not understand it. The triple Unity of 
God is obvious in all his works, to eyes that can see. 
Have we not always and everywhere a trinity of con- 
trasts and their intermedium ? And where are the con- 
trasts which somewhere and somehow have not their 
intermedium and union? These contrasts, which every- 
where appear, are the causes of all movement in the uni- 
verse or in the least organism (action and reaction). 
Hence for all development there is a necessary struggle, 
which sooner or later, however, must find its equilibrium. 
This equilibrium is the intermedium of the contrasts which 
creates the harmony or accord in all the parts of a whole. 
This harmony is the flowering-time of every organism, 
which is found in the intellectual as well as in the material 
world. Does not every plant show us the connection of 
contrasts, — inner and outer, force and matter, cause and 
operation, the visible and the invisible, etc. .'* But I do 
not say, like the Pantheists, that the world is God's 
body, that God dwells in it as in a house. But the spirit 
of God dwells and lives in nature, produces, fosters, and 
unfolds everything, as the common life-principle. In 
like manner the spirit of God- dwells in his work, pro- 
duces, fosters and preserves it. As the spirit of the 



30 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

artist is found again in his masterpieces, so must we find 
God's spirit (Geist) in his works.* 

" We have to open the eyes of our children, that they 
may learn to know the Creator in his creations. Only 
when they have found or divined God as the Creator, 
through visible things, will they learn to understand 
the ' Word of God,' — God in spirit and in truth, — and 
be able to become Christians. First is the visible world, 
then the invisible truth, — the idea. These contrasts of 
visible and invisible are to be intermediated (connected) 
for the very young child, not by words, only by phenom- 
ena, which at first give him but an impression of it. 
My ' Mother and Cosset Songs ' show how this can be 
done. [See the " Gilt Bird," the " Weather-Cock," etc.] 
Through them the mother learns how the soul of the 
child can be prepared early for the perception of truth. 
Without religious preparation in childhood, no true re- 
ligion and no union with God is possible for men. Faith 
in God is innate in every man, every child ; it has only 
to be awakened in the right way, but it must be awak- 
ened, or it remains dead." In this manner we conversed 
for a long time, and out of all that Froebel said shone 
the deepest trust in God, the most sincere and religious 
mind. He concurred very litde with the conventional 
religious training of children, but he had something of his 
own to put in the place of that to which he did not agree. 

Asking Froebel why he chose the tree especially to 
symbolize organization and the universal process of de- 

* See further in Froebel's " Education of Man." It is only possible here 
to quote short fragments of our conversations, to which I am led by circum- 
stances of the moment. It is of greater importance not always to be confined 
to Froebel's often obscure manner of expressing himself. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 3 1 

velopment even in the intellectual world, he replied : 
" No more perfect representation of organic life and the 
mutual relation of its parts can be found in nature than 
in a tree. The seed (unity) divides in the germ into 
duality (difference or opposition), and all the various stages 
of development follow definitely and clearly to full com- 
pletion. The roots and the crown are the opposite 
equivalents, for the crown planted in the earth forms 
roots because it lacks the light. The roots turned up 
and exposed to the light form themselves into a crown. 
These two related opposites in the tree phenomena are 
connected by the trunk, which contains within itself the 
material of the woody root, and the sap which is diffused 
through the crown. In the articulation of the twigs and 
leaves we have the type of all articulation, the great and 
small boughs and twigs, even to the mass of the leaves 
connected with them and receiving life from them. 

*' In like manner is expressed the necessary articulation 
of human society and the organization of the state. The 
unity which appears in all parts, from the least to the 
greatest, gives to the tree its individuality. For instance, 
the peculiar mellowness and delicacy of the odor of the 
Linden is found again in the tenderness of the leaf-text- 
ure, in the flexibility and softness of the wood, and also 
of the roots ; every part expresses the same characteris- 
tic ; even the taste of the blossoms and leaves. On the 
contrary, the oak expresses an opposite character. Every- 
thing in that bears the mark of power and concentration, 
— the gnarled root, the bark of the trunk, the thick, firm 
substance of the wood, the hardness of the leaves, and 
the acrid taste of the fruit. Both of the trees bear the 
common marks of their kind, the universal of the tree, 
but each in its mode, that is, \\\q particiiljr. 



$2 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Thus we see unity (that which is common to all the 
parts), variety (in the diversity of the parts), and a partic- 
ular (the individual, expressing the personal character 
of the tree) united and clearly made evident in the phe- 
nomenon of the tree. On this account it is the most 
expressive symbol of all organization, whether of natural 
or of intellectual life. Jesus also likened humanity to 
the tree in the expression, 'the tree of humanity.' " 

These deeper aspects of Froebel's idea and theory 
could only be drawn from him occasionally ; but as soon 
as he touched upon the first principles of his conception 
of the world on which his educational idea rested, his 
expression and his formula became absolutely precise, 
as was shown in his letters to myself He also knew 
how to express himself in the clearest manner upon 
Christianity and its most profound dogmas. Concerning 
the application of his educational idea and the carrying 
it out in practical life, he was least able to make himself 
clear, because he attempted it by means of innumerable 
circumlocutions. One reason for this lay in the fact that 
his mind was wholly occupied in a labor which he was 
far from having completed, — a labor which will require 
many lives and long years for its consummation. An- 
other reason might be, that the experience of seldom being 
correctly understood induced him to add to his already 
peculiar style of speech frequent repetitions, and various 
expressions of the same thought, from which the oppo- 
site of the intended clearness resulted. For this reason 
chiefly are Froebel's writings so little intelligible and 
throughout not popularly written ; at the same time it 
must be remembered that new thoughts and new theo- 
ries cannot be made equally clear to every one. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 33 

Even Diesterweg often found it difficult to understand 
Froebel's thoughts, but this great educator never per- 
mitted himself, like some of his colleagues, to condemn 
Froebel's cause and to cast it aside because there were 
some things in it that were not clear to him. He often 
said to me, " What I understand of Froebel's idea is 
enough to prevent me from rejecting a subject many 
sides of which have been but little worked out. There 
is much still to be made clear in the matter. The mate- 
rial already prepared for its practical application is excel- 
lent In that Froebel's thought is expressed clearly. It 
must be further worked out into the school where Froe- 
bel and Pestalozzi meet." 

Sometimes when I urged upon Diesterweg that he 
should study more deeply Froebel's method and means 
of work, in order to explain their application in his 
writings, he replied, " That is not for me, but for others, 
to do. I, as a schoolman, have my problem to solve in 
regard to Pestalozzi," (and who will assert that he has 
not solved it ?) He also said, " It is for women — 
mothers and kindergartners — to carry out Froebel's 
method in its practical application to earliest childhood. 
Their fitness to direct in this first step of education is 
recognized ; then comes the second step, the fusing of 
it with Pestalozzi's method for the school. But I am 
too old to undertake this. I already have more work 
than I have strength for. To each his own. But I will 
help in single cases, if you will tell me where and how." 

Froebel and Diesterweg were contrasts not only in 
personal appearance ; their mental gifts and their em- 
ployment of them showed a certain contrast. Froebel's 
long, lean form was the opposite of Diesterweg's short, 



34 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

broad, and thick-set body. Froebel's features were sharp 
and angular; Diestervveg's round and full. Both had the 
arched nose, but Froebel's was more prominent. His 
expression of countenance was more deeply thoughtful, 
and absorbed in himself, while a keen observation of 
outward things and at the same time a jovial expression 
characterized Diesterweg. Froebel had but little critical 
faculty outside of his own subject, while Diesterweg pos- 
sessed it in a high degree in all directions ; and although 
both minds worked in the same field, it was in very 
different ways. While Diesterweg was recognized mas- 
ter in the field of instruction and its methods, Froebel's 
special problem was that of education in general, the 
development of the whole man, and with special refer- 
ence to the formation of character, the pre[)aration for 
acting and producing. This aim was with him the most 
important in creating a new educational beginning in the 
earlier years of life. Diesterweg worked with Pesta- 
lozzi more to form the understanding; Froebel more 
for forming the will and the active powers. Diester- 
weg personally influenced the immediate present by 
his pre-eminently practical genius in the field of peda- 
gogics ; while Froebel's influence will only make it- 
self fully felt in the future. Those who, like Froebel, 
are favored with a new idea, are a burning-glass for 
higher inspirations, for which they have to wait ; and 
their work is so wholly inward it rarely allows them, in 
their lifetime, to have great authority in the outside 
world. Besides, Froebel was a discoverer, and such 
must always work in silence till everything is perfected 
for outward application. 

If these two great souls were in many respects con- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 35 

trasts to each other, they were yet inwardly united in 
other respects. Both were men of deep feeling, warm 
beating hearts, profound, original natures, who knew 
that they had accepted service in the ranks of humanity, 
and who, with entire self-renunciation, worked and suf- 
fered for it throughout their whole lives. 

I have always looked upon my intimacy with these 
two lofty minds and excellent men, and my association 
in their great and noble work of education, as a rare 
happiness. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MIDDENDORFF. 

I LOOKED forward with great interest to Midden- 
dorff's visit, knowing of him already from Froebel's 
account, and that he possessed in him his truest friend 
and companion, who had accompanied him on his life- 
path, and had shared labor and pain with him for more 
than thirty years. " He is a childlike man," said Froe- 
bel, " who understands me with his heart." Both had 
been soldiers in Lutzow's free corps, and at the beginning 
of the campaign of 18 13 had found each other out and 
established a friendship, — one of those rare friendships 
which endure for life, and therefore will last beyond it. 

One afternoon in September Froebel came to my 
house and introduced his friend with the words : " Here 
is Middendorff." Who that had once seen that pres- 
ence, simple, plain, and yet arousing full sympathy, 



36 ^ REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

could ever forget it ? With the first glance of the eyes 
and clasp of the hands we were friends. 

Like Froebel, Middendorff belonged to that class of 
men who are represented in our time only by rare types ; 
who appear in the modern world as forms out of the 
past, and not belonging to the present. This type ex- 
presses in its nature the honest, true, steadfast, genuine 
German, combined with that innocent childlikeness and 
heartiness, knowing no guile because incapable of deceiv- 
ing, and forms the sharpest contrast to the worldly craft- 
iness, and empty, critical intellectualism of the men of 
our day. A beautiful simplicity in the highest sense 
of the word, the inheritance of a bygone generation, 
characterized Middendorff. Great tenderness of nature 
gave him an almost feminine stamp. To conquer all 
opposition with love, to harmonize discords, to veil 
faults when they could not be cured, to see the better 
side in dark days, to trust the all-powerful Providence 
with pious devotion, — all this, united with a childlike 
cheerfulness, gave him the ideal stamp of a soul-keeper, 
that floats before us out of the past, and here and there 
may still be seen by us in some real village pastor. 

Therefore was Middendorff truly Froebel's good angel 
during his earthly pilgrimage ; he always tried to soothe 
and to equalize, and was a peacemaker in the wide 
fiimily circle when that was necessary. 

In spitt of these characteristic traits of the past, yet 
Middendorff was one of the spirits longing for a renova- 
tion ; one of those so completely penetrated with that 
modern impulse for higher development, that no youth- 
ful spirit could pursue promising inducements with more 
fire, or give himself up to them with more ideal elevation. 



RExMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 37 

Froebel's motto, "the renovation of life," had taken 
complete possession of Middendorff's soul ; and the dis- 
appointments which at that time followed so closely after 
this elevation could not rob him of his fair hopes, that, 
even if they had to traverse a wilderness first, the prom- 
ised land of a better time and an ennobled humanity 
would nevertheless be reached. His hopes rested on 
children, — " children worthily educated in truth," who 
would in the future victoriously maintain the contest 
against all kinds of savagery, rudeness, vice, and cow- 
ardice, and thus be enabled to gain freedom through 
morality, and to behold the dawn of more beautiful days. 
This was to him an incontestable certainty, of which he 
was often able to convince doubters by his inspiring 
words. He could not doubt the grandeur of human 
nature, which mirrored itself in his own soul. 

How would this fresh, youthful old man have rejoiced 
had he lived to see the victories of Germany of to-day ! 

But he was happy, nevertheless, in his own day, since 
it was given to him to see everything in the shimmer of 
beauty, — everywhere, in great and perfected things as 
well as in the smallest and most hidden, God's holy 
creation and his guidance. His communion with nature, 
like Froebel's, was always worship of God, and awakened 
in him the poetical mood, which on our walks often took 
the form of verse. These I would find the next morning 
upon my table. Without being masterpieces in form, 
such a truly poetical nature was expressed in these un- 
assuming little poems that they warmed up the recipient 
and lighted up the little incidents and impressions of 
our Liebenstein circle. In this little circle, where from 
all sides streamed upon him honor, love, and trust in 
full measure, he was always well and happy. 



38 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

And Froebel, too, was always happy and exhilarated 
in Middendorff's presence. He exchanged with him 
every feeling of the soul, every thought upon all the 
little circumstances of their life. Nothing could destroy 
that intimate friendship, not even occasional undeniable 
disagreements, or rather incomplete comprehension of 
Froebel's idea and its consequences on the part of 
Middendorff. Froebel used to say, " Middendorff seizes 
everything with his feelings, even the idea. He is all 
devotion. Without him we could not have attained what 
we have attained." These were words of deep acknowl- 
edgment out of Froebel's mouth. Yes, without Midden- 
dorff, Froebel perhaps would not have come out unbroken 
from the storms and disappointments of his life. 

Middendorff, in this union of souls, was the feminine 
half, which, comforting and softening, stands by the side 
of the manly strength, so that the storm may not break 
it, and it may learn to bow to the immutable. Good 
judgment of things, severe criticism of men and circum- 
stances, were often out of proportion to this predomi- 
nance of benevolence and goodness of heart. He was 
hardly capable of understanding evil in others, for he 
always brought forward extenuating circumstances. Even 
in judging Froebel's scholars, both he and Middendorff 
were not seldom deceived by their hopeful and embel- 
lishing benevolence. They thought they saw much sig- 
nificance and many promising capacities where at most 
a lively sympathy and devotion to the cause existed. 

But certainly not one of the pupils of the Liebenstein 
or Marienthal schools has forgotten how Middendorff's 
visits always brought an innocent, poetical serenity, one 
might say, a holy state of mind, and how well he knew 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 39 

the way at once to enliven and to elevate them. When, 
in our customary walks, we saw the sun go down, Mid- 
dendorff would take out a little song-book and intone a 
hymn to the sun, in which the young girls would all join, 
or at least sing the refrain. If plants and flowers were 
woven into wreaths and crowns, he used their admiration 
and wonder to interest them in the wisdom of creation, 
and to apply its laws to human life. 

The symbolism of things was always attractive to 
Middendorff, and his explanations and comparisons were 
always sensuous. It was his deep — and, for a man, rare 
— sensibility that gave him so great power to influence 
the female mind, and made him the best interpreter of 
Froebel's genius. What Froebel created was adopted 
by Middendorff, worked out with the deepest devotion, 
and generally given back in an intelligible form ; and 
with what perseverance, with what unflinching courage 
and unwavering fidelity, did he defend Froebel's idea 
from the very beginning, even in the narrowest circles, 
where he found only a glimpse of understanding, and 
against the often mocking or entirely condemnatory crit- 
icism of some teachers and pedagogical authorities, who 
had never given themselves the trouble to learn the 
theory and the praxis of Froebel's method ! If ever any 
one understood how to bring out the ideal of the peculiar 
nature hidden in every man, then Middendorff knew how 
to draw Froebel's into the light, and to overlook the 
human weaknesses and separate them from the genius. 
Every utterance of this genius he accepted as an oracle ; 
and if there were some things not entirely clear to him, 
he used to say, " There must be something in that j I 
will work it out ; it will fit in with the rest," etc. 



40 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

In one of my evening walks with Middendorff I said 
to him, " By means of Froebel's doctrine and education 
men will be brought to understand the visible creation 
as a symbol of the mental, and find the confirmation by 
experience of what we call revelatiofi. Truth is always 
the same, whether science digs it out of the things of 
nature, the material world, or a mind of higher enlighten- 
ment receives it through the immediate inspiration of 
genius. It only needs that we learn to understand the 
language of things (i. e. the original nature of things) in 
order that we may compare them with that which is 
original in the mind, — with thought. Then we can 
explain contradictions which are only apparent. This 
solution abolishes the dualism which exists in the first 
theory, which is valid only with respect to the incom- 
plete, the relative of all actuality, but not with respect to 
the truth, as such, — the absolute. 

" An education which, at the start, enables the human 
mind to see the connection and the originating and 
finally effective unity of things, must contribute to abol- 
ish that dual mode of perception which is called forth 
by the antitheses and contradictions in the facts of real 
life, and its incomplete and changing phenomena. This 
education by and with things themselves, this dealing 
with the concrete, will help to build the bridge between 
the material and the intellectual, between the real and 
the ideal, the universe and God ; and in that way will 
lay the foundation in the childish mind for a religious 
view of the universe. 

" It is certainly a great defect in the present religious 
teaching that it dwells always, by preference, upon the 
apparent difference or opposition of nature and spirit, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 4I 

Instead of making prominent in the child's mind at first, 
at least, the harmony and the resolution of differences, 
which is the goal set by God. The child's eye always, 
at first, seizes the analogous, the point of union, the 
whole connection of things, and only after that begins to 
discern differences and opposition. 

" In our time men seem to have forgotten nature in 
favor of spirit, and objects in favor of abstractions ; the 
word is separated from the thing, and governs ; and gen- 
erally, only as a mere empty word, is not understood. 
It is quite clear to me that Froebel's method and doc- 
trine will reverse this process, and first connect facts 
with the outer and inner experience as their root and 
their cause. Thus only can the spirit of truth, which is 
the spirit of God, again be recognized as one and the 
same, in nature and in the mind. Froebel's idea of 
education strives to bring to the full consciousness of 
men their relations to nature (the divine nature), and 
thereby must the relation of men to God (in the spirit) 
and to all that is divine, as Christianity teaches, be lifted 
to higher and clearer recognition. One side of truth 
verifies and explains the other side. 

" The ruling tendency of our time towards nature and 
things, and the interests of actual life, will be obliged to 
serve identical purposes. In spite of the reverse sidcj 
the errors and coarse degeneracy bound up therewith, 
this tendency is one necessary for the process of devel- 
opment, willed by God, and it w-ill reach its goal, even 
though in a roundabout way, through a deeper knowl- 
edge of human nature, and bridge over the great gulf 
between the spiritual and material world. 

" This agreement of the idea of Froebel with the needs 



42 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

and the legitimate and higher strivings of the present da}^ 
for progress and reform signalizes it as a divine idea. 
'I'he right carrying out of this new idea of education will, 
more than anything else, help to conquer crude material- 
ism, and to break the path for idealism to harmonize 
with the practical actuality, and bring the real and ideal 
life again into accord." 

Middendorff looked at me with beaming eyes, and 
replied : " You have spoken to me out of the soul ; so 
have I also explained the idea. I will now give you a 
view which I have never before expressed in words to 
any one. This idea of the unity of nature could only 
have been worked out and prepared for an educational 
application by a mind that had experienced this truth 
within itself and lived it out. Froebel has lived in un- 
broken union with nature ; the human weaknesses and 
defects which are also his inheritance have not hindered 
this union. Only through God's special ordering could 
this happen, and therein lies an inexpressible comfort, in 
view of the evils and woe of humanity. You are right. 
One truth must ever confirm another ; the recognized 
truth will be more clearly and deeply understood through 
every new one discovered. The spirit of Christianity, so 
very much misunderstood and mistaken at present, will 
awaken to new life in children, and appear in a new and 
a higher light when Froebel's idea of education has been 
practically applied. This is my deepest conviction." 

"But how," I replied, "can we make this connection 
between the greatest and the smallest intelligible by 
means of child's play.? how connect the deep idea with 
so insignificant a form ? I confess that I do not see. As 
the world is at present, it would laugh at us if we should 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 43 

express such views aloud, and yet I own that I cannot be 
satisfied with the mere practical external side of the sub- 
ject if I am to devote myself entirely to it." 

Middendorff replied : " This is, however, the only way; 
in all humility to nourish the smallest, and scatter seed 
which in the future, perhaps long after we shall be no 
more, will spring up. But to tend the human germs in 
a constantly progressive manner, in every new stage of 
human development, is certainly no mean calling, but the 
greatest and most important for every generation." 

"I see this very well," was my answer, "but every 
mind needs to unfold and live itself out, and would like 
to leave behind in this life some work of its own, either 
small or great, according to the measure of its powers. 
The highest satisfaction, it seems to me, is given by an 
independent work of beauty, in which one's own mind has 
mirrored itself. Every one who bears something in his 
soul which he is driven by inner impulse to express — 
an impulse he cannot silence, for it always awakens anew 
with irresistible power, demanding a hearing — is bound 
to utter that word ; it is the command of God ; and if 
one has desired and striven for this work without append- 
ing his own name to it, we may be sure that the motive 
of it is a higher one than personal vanity. Ought one, 
however, to sacrifice one's own idea, the children of one's 
own mind, to represent the ideas of another.? Yet, on 
the other hand, I see plainly that it is far more useful to 
work for human society on a large scale, and to educate 
for it in the young generation of this and the following 
age better men, braver citizens, and greater geniuses. 
Instead of offering the work of one mind, a thousand 
greater and more various works will be prepared, if the 



44 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

divine spark of creativeness shall be awakened and more 
perfectly fostered in the present and future generations 
than has hitherto been done. All this is undeniable ; 
but it requires in some degree the sacrifice of our own 
growth and progress, and hence the decision is not 
easy." 

Just at this moment Froebel joined us, and asked the 
subject of our long conversation. We told him the last 
part of it, upon which he said, turning to me, " In such 
questions the inner necessity decides. Whoever has 
actually recognized a truth that concerns mankind as a 
whole, must confess and serve it, whether he wishes to 
or not. This inner necessity will compel you, as you 
will find. Nothing in the world is attainable without 
sacrifice ; and when one can promote a universal good, 
the individual (Froebel called it the particular) must 
yield, even if it were the best and the highest accom- 
plishment. When our country is in danger, all those 
capable of bearing arms must enter into the conflict, 
however much of intellect and talent is lost by it ; and 
to work in the service of humanity stands higher than to 
perform any individual thing." 

" You are risrht," said I. " The whole is indeed better 
than a part. No one can estimate more highly than I 
do the idea which will awaken creative power in man- 
kind in every direction, and lift thoughts into deeds. But 
will it ever be possible to rid the world of Philistines and 
puppets ? I do not believe it." 

" By no means," replied Froebel ; " that must not be. 
Every ship needs its ballast, and if we had no Philistines 
(as you call them), how could the world go on ? who 
would attend to every-day cares and business ? Every 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 45 

work needs special powers. Nature provides all neces- 
sary powers, and human education must develop them, 
each one according to its kind, forbidding that the most 
and best be lost, as hitherto ; and that shall prevent men 
from working like beasts of burden, unconscious of their 
dignity. An education which does not try to raise roses 
from thistle-bushes will wisely use all talents and dispo- 
sitions, and bring each man into his proper place, out of 
which he will not desire to go. My educational method, 
in its right application, can surely attain this end, — that 
is to say, gradually, step by step. If we do not force 
nature, or drive it in a direction opposite to its peculiar 
bent ; if we recognize its general law, and give each par- 
ticular power its free development, and all the support 
and care it needs, as an intelHgent gardener does with 
his plants, then will the human powers be better able 
to bring forth their blossoms. But as the plant grows 
through its own vital power, so also must human power 
become great through its own exercise and effort. Only 
let there be no outside forcing or supporting. Every- 
thing in nature remains in its own place, and there fulfils 
its destiny ; the grass will not become a tree nor the 
insect a bird. The same harmony can be reached in the 
human world, so that every one can follow his own call- 
ing, can work and live. To reach the unconscious har- 
mony of nature with consciousness in the human sphere, 
is the goal which God has set for man. Battle, strife, war, 
dissension, pain, error, s'ui^ are all to be means to this end. 
There is no lack of conflict in nature ; no intermediation 
without opposites ; no harmony without resolution of dis- 
cords ; no perfection without labor, and without effort to 
overcome impediments and obstacles. All this Jesus has 



46 REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 

taught US. But teaching and insight alone do not reach 
it ; it must be enacted as Jesus enacted it. We must 
educate the children to doing arid acting if they are to 
become in truth Christians." 

" And the greatest share in such education belongs lo 
women ; in that we are all agreed," said Middendorft'. 
"Women must make of their educational calling a priestly 
office." 

We had now arrived at the door of my dwelling, which 
brought our conversation to an end. And far into the 
night I was writing supplementary and explanatory com- 
mentaries upon it. 

" Your Middendorff is a glorious man," said the Duchess 
Ida, after she had heard him speak on kindergartens the 
first time ; " he speaks from his heart so warmly that one 
has to agree with him." 

We were especially indebted to this warm impression 
for the lottery, whose proceeds were to serve for the 
foundation of a kindergarten in Liebenstein. This was 
so richly sustained with presents and sympathy that it 
soon gave actual life to the undertaking, and the largest 
gifts were from the Princesses, the Duchess of Meiningen, 
her sister Caroline of Hesse, and the Duchess Ida. 

When Froebel and Middendorff saw the table covered 
with the gifts, some of which were beautiful works of 
art, Middendorff said, with great feeling, " These gifts 
of love should encourage us to hold firmly by the faith 
that the work will not fail of its necessary support, though 
we may often ask in many places in vain. Even the 
very small encouragement which my memorial on the 
kindergarten received from the National Association at 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 47 

Frankfort did not discourage me.* The time will come 
when they will know that the education of the people 
from the earliest period of childhood is the first neces- 
sary condition of bringing about the political and moral 
freedom of nations." 

" Yes, the time will come," I replied, " when the im- 
mediate connection between the political reforms that 
are striven for and these demands of education will be 
recognized and appreciated ; but we can scarcely live to 
see it, since politics have so much absorbed the minds 
of men that this modest planting for the sake of child- 
hood has been overlooked." 

" Then we must plant so many of these nurseries all 
over Germany that they cannot be overlooked," said 
Middendorff. 

" I will give you my hand to work for that," I said, 
" and whoever understands the time knows that work is 
not mere talking, or even thinking, but includes acting. 
Let us go and see a house that I think will do for our 
kindergarten." 

Weimar, too, has to thank Middendorff for the interest 
taken by the court in the kindergarten. Through my 
influence he received an invitation to come up from 
Keilhau for a few days in the fall of 1849, and give two 
lectures. One of these, in a public meeting, aroused 
the interest of a large number of hearers to a high pitch, 
and laid the foundations for the support of a kinder- 

* Middendorff had read a paper before the National Association of 1S4S ; 
and later his son-in-law, Dr. W. Lange, edited it under the title, " Wilhelm 
Middendorff upon the Kindergarten " ; and it was published in Hamburg, 
by Hoffman & Co., in 1861. 



48 REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 

garten opened in Weimar in the following year. The 
other lecture was delivered at the Grand Duke's, in the 
select court circle, and helped me to gain the support of 
their Highnesses for the furthering of Froebel's cause, 
and especially for the introduction of his " occupations" 
into the asylums under the protection of the then reign- 
ing Grand Duchess (a Russian princess). 

When Middendorff stood in the private court circle 
for the first time, so simple, so unaffected, and yet so 
firm, and, according to his habit, with half-closed eyes, 
uttering those words which well up from the heart and 
penetrate to the hearts of all, and in that circle so un- 
accustomed to plain simplicity, the Grand Duke, who 
was himself so easily interested in all that is good, ex- 
claimed, " What an excellent, inspiring man ! " 

*' Did I do it properly?" asked Middendorff of me, 
when he had ended. With my whole soul I could say, 
" Yes." 

In the following summer (1850) we met again at Lie- 
benstein, to know each other still better. The course 
of these reminiscences will again lead us back to Mid- 
dendorff, and some beautiful things have been con- 
tributed to the characterization of him by W. Lange ; 
and still later by Hanschmann, in his " Memoirs of 
Friedrich Froebel." Diesterweg also, in his Rheinische 
Bldttern^ published some fragments upon Middendorff, 
one of which I myself contributed at Diesterweg's re- 
quest. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 49 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SUMMER OF 1850 IN LIEBENSTEIN. 

AFTER having returned to Liebenstein in June, 
1850, I found Froebel settled with his school at 
Marienthal, and among his scholars was a daughter of 
Diestervveg. Already in the spring of this year he had 
mentioned to me his removal, and written to me with 
delight of his new home, ornamented with flowers and 
wreaths by the hands of his scholars, and in which he 
felt truly happy and full of hope. 

But there is upon earth no light without a shadow, 
and shadows were not wanting here. Froebel had 
accepted an invitation from the Women's Union of Ham- 
burg, and had spent the past winter months in that city, 
and given a course on his educational method. Mid- 
dendorff had paved the way for him, as he so often did, 
by some essays which awakened a lively interest there, 
and Froebel had. received the liveliest welcome from a 
very large circle. His letters to me had acknowledged 
this and extolled the zeal of his pupils. But what was 
disagreeable and disturbing to him, and affected him 
painfully, was the founding of a high-school for the 
female sex, which struck out other paths for the ad- 
vancement the time demanded for them than those he 
had pointed out to be the true ones for that purpose. 

At that time, and for a quarter of a century, the idea 
of the emancipation of women had stirred the minds 
of many women in a high degree, and often drove even 
the best into false directions, though they were not, how- 



50 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

ever, on that account guilty of the absurdities and per- 
versities of the so-called " emancipated." It is certain 
that the best and most distinguished women of our 
country have felt an intense longing after advancement 
out of the subordinate position formerly assigned to 
them, and they greeted with joy the movement of our 
day for enfranchisement. 

But at that time the requisite means for the end were 
not yet seen with clearness. Too much was aimed at at 
once, without due consideration of the actual develop- 
ment in the majority of women. A demand was made 
from many sides for a complete external equality of 
women with the male sex, without considering that the 
difference of the sexes, so clearly designed by nature, 
pointed out a different destiny for each, and that only 
the higher fulfilment of the duties of this destiny would 
bring them up to the position of equality with men, 
without, however, involving the same rights, duties, and 
functions. External independence without correspond- 
ing self-poise and self-command leads to destruction. 
Moreover, there was an attempt to counterbalance the 
deficient formation of the understanding by a mere 
increase of knowledge, without the requisite foundation 
of intellectual habits, which only brings sham knowledge, 
and takes away the greatest treasure of womanhood, her 
originality and innocence. Even philosophical studies 
belonged to the proposed programme of the high-school, 
which, even if they could be given to exceptional per- 
sons, in an exceptional manner, were only suited to 
years of intellectual maturity, not to the youthful age to 
which is natural only belief in truth. 

It was, meanwhile, very conceivable that then, when 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 5 1 

the solution of the woman question was yet in its first 
beginning, the right track should not be immediately 
found by the able directors of the institution (Professor 
Karl Froebel, a nephew of Froebel's, and his wife, with 
the members of the Women's Union), although they 
were full of intellect, energy, enthusiasm, and practical 
ability. 

There was yet necessary a longer experience, which 
might modify and make clear the prevailing views ; and 
this is, indeed, still needed, for at present the woman 
question is to be decided, more or less, only by experi- 
ments, which are demanded for the development of 
everything new ; and on the threshold of this subject a 
continual pressing external necessity has directed the 
first attention to women's skill in work, and the material 
side of the subject. The school is still seeking for the 
improved cultivation of the female mind, to meet the 
demands of the time, but without having yet perfectly 
found them. So there is more need of trials and ex- 
periments. Undeniably much good has already been 
reached, many good steps have been taken ; but also 
many a shadow has fallen, and among these — a not 
always agreeable realism — also an accumulation of trivial 
acquirements, which has injured genuine womanhood. 

Certainly by every forward step the inevitable one- 
sidedness of all progress must gradually be vanquished, 
if the female sex is to be lifted according to its in?ier na- 
ture into the proper place for it, at the present stage of 
human development. But one of the necessary requi- 
sites for this is the new beginning of human culture 
according to Froebel's idea, and the fitting of the female 
sex to woik out this idea as mothers and teachers. 



52 REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 

P>oebel could not therefore befriend the one-sided ex- 
periment, on account of his deep conviction that the first 
principles of the science of motherhood taught by him 
must He at the foundation of the elevation of the female 
sex, conformably with truth and its own nature. 

Already in the fall of the last year he had spoken to 
me with disapproval of the Hamburg project of the high- 
school as running counter to his endeavors. It followed, 
therefore, that on my arriving at Liebenstein this year it 
became the first subject of our conversations. 

After I had expressed to Froebel that I thought the age 
unquestionably demanded arrangements for the higher 
education of women, and that if the first attempts made 
might not be all that could be desired they would pave 
the way for better things and things more adapted to the 
end, he burst out, not without vehemence : — 

" But what good will come out of this knowledge, 
stamped and cemented upon the outside, which is, in- 
deed, no knowledge at all, for it conceals and defaces the 
real human nature like a party-colored patch ? All that 
does not grow out of one's inner being, all that is not 
one's own original feeling and thought, or at least awakens 
that, oppresses and defaces the individuality of man in- 
stead of calling it forth, and nature becomes thereby a 
caricature. Shall we never cease to stamp human nature, 
even in childhood, like coins ? to ov^erlay it with foreign 
images and foreign superscriptions, instead of letting it 
develop itself and grow into form according to the law 
of life planted in it by God, the Father, so that it may 
be able to bear the stamp of the divine, and become an 
image of God? For hundreds of years we Germans 
especially, through imitation of foreign nations, have 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 53 

worn these fetters, which do not allow the deepest nature 
of the people or of individuals to move and unfold freely. 
But shall we, therefore, never make a beginning of allow- 
ing a tree of life to germinate in each one's own heart, 
and a tree of knowledge in each one's own mind, taking 
care for its beautiful unfolding, that it may bring forth 
fresh and healthy flowers and ripe fruits, which shall take 
root in this world and shall germinate again in the other? 
Shall we never banish the fear that minds ripened through 
their own observation, their own experience, and their 
own thinking, will be able to overthrow those universal 
truths which, in the course of history, have been unfolded 
and sanctioned by revelation ? Can what is true ever be 
overthrown? Can this individual mind, in its original 
power, find other truth than the universal mind ? And 
are not the errors of one and of another always, in the 
progress of development, turned again into the right 
path? Does not God's providence always again send 
guides who lead back into this right path and illumi- 
nate it ? 

" But I will protect childhood, that it may not, as in 
earlier generations, be pinioned, as in a strait-jacket, in 
garments of custom and ancient prescription that have 
become too narrow for the new time. I shall show the 
way and shape the means, that every human soul may 
grow of itself out of its own individuality. But where 
shall I find allies and helpers if not in women, who, as 
mothers and teachers, may put my idea in execution? 
Only intellectually active women can and will do it. But 
if these are to be loaded with the ballast of dead knowl- 
edge that can take no root in the unprepared ground, if 
the fountains of their own original life are to be choked 



54 REMINISCENCES OF FROEDEL. 

up with it, they will not follow my direction nor under- 
stand the call of the time for the new task of their sex, 
but will seek satisfaction in empty superficiality. 

" To learn to comprehend nature in the child, is not 
that to comprehend one's own nature and the nature of 
mankind ? And in this comprehension is there not in- 
volved a certain degree of comprehension of all things 
else ? Women cannot learn and take into themselves 
anything higher and more comprehensive. It should 
therefore at least be the beginning, and the love of child- 
hood should be awakened in the mind (and, in a wider 
sense, this is the love of humanity), so that a new, free 
generation of men can grow up by right care. 

"Instead of diffusing, before all other things, the knowl- 
edge necessary for the welfare of future generations, — 
that is, that the human mind is already choked in the 
germ by the burdensome crowd of notions heaped up 
and patched on foreign to it, rooted in nothing within, 
we foolishly strive to increase them still more ! 

" And what else will these high-schools do with their 
surfeit of the mere culture of the understanding, and 
superficial word-cramming, which they call philosophy? 
They ruin everything for me, and shall I lift a finger to 
support such things? It is impossible! I cannot and 
never will consent. I know my way which God himself 
has pointed out to me, and I must remain in it even were 
all the world against me." 

Froebel expressed this his deepest conviction with 
great excitement. I had for the most part entire sym- 
pathy with him, and I answered : — 

" I most certainly share your opinion that we shall 
never be able to remedy the evils of our system of edu- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 55 

cation by the mere accumulation of knowledge. The 
originality of human nature must be rescued; the real, 
inner self of each individuality allowed to appear freely, 
in order that at least the more gifted and stronger souls 
may not be stamped with the impress of mediocrity, or 
wear themselves out in pain because they are not suited 
to live in a conventional manner among men of wood 
{schablonen-menscheii). If any one knows this pain of not 
being able to give out his best, most individual self, with- 
out being misunderstood and branded as a heretic by the 
common superficiality of even intelligent people, he will 
become your ally in preserving and unfolding the origi- 
nating power of mankind. 

" That your mode of education by creating and pro- 
ducing from the earliest childhood, through one's own 
experience and knowledge of things and objects, is one 
of the first and principal conditions for this, I am fully 
convinced, and on that account chiefly I shall be com- 
pelled to help the work. At least let it be asked Junv 
we are to educate, instead of everlastingly repeating what 
is to be attained. 

"Woman's nature has unquestionably retained the 
stamp of its originality and spontaneity better than that 
^of man. She owes this largely to the smaller measure 
of mere knowledge that has been forced upon her, and 
this is at least one advantage of the ignorance in which 
the sex has been left. But the most original element of 
the woman's soul is maternal love, which at no stage of 
development and in no decline of the human race can 
belie the stamp of the holiest nature. This love, the 
strongest of all human love, assures victory to your edu- 
cational work, for it will understand and learn to apply 



56 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

your idea with the heart, however long it may wait for 
the full recognition of it. 

" But why are you opposed to the founding of such 
institutions as this high-school, when you yourself recog- 
nize experience as the best master? Let the matter take 
its course, and the reasonable persons among its founders 
will change and improve many things, and gradually find 
the right way. Until the children of the kindergarten 
grow up, we shall not have those originally growing 
natures that can stand on their own feet, and will know 
how to work out and make their own that which is en- 
joined by authority. The mass of the men of the pres- 
ent day understand only the old accustomed way of 
teaching, and need leading-strings and acquired wisdom. 
While for this reason there are not yet original men, we 
must let them follow the impulse of their time in their 
own way. They will produce much that is useful and 
healthy, and provide for the necessities and enjoyments 
of the moment sufficiently. Must we not always have 
with us men of the future, men of the present, and even 
men of the past, so that that connection in time may not 
be wanting, the recognition of which you consider the 
first condition of right education and unity of view? 

"Those women who have defective or scanty intel- 
lectual natures we shall not win to our cause ; they must 
go their own way. They will be attracted externally to 
tlie great and brilliant incidents of the time, but they 
will not work for the little ones or for the humble cause 
which will only become great after they have left the 
stage. You say yourself that every one has his own — 
and a different — problem to solve. The present move- 
ment drav/s women in another direction than the one in 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 57 

which you would have them go. They are striving to 
free themselves from the narrowness of their home life, 
and they think the educational office required by you 
would condemn them to the greater limitation of the 
nursery. I have had some experience in this matter 
within the last few months. A universal enthusiasm of 
women for their mission as educators of humanity is un- 
attainable in our time. The majority of women will take 
advantage of the more elevated and independent posi- 
tions opened to the sex, and enjoy having their influence 
and making it felt, and they will not give themselves up 
to work for future generations. 

" How can you expect women to look at things from 
an elevated standpoint, when their previous education 
and position have tended almost exclusively to folly and 
externality, if they have not been forced to labor like 
beasts of burden ? Only those who have suffered deeply 
and severely, who have learned under the heavy press- 
ure of a life's experience to overcome and sacrifice per- 
sonal ease, will undertake such a duty as to labor for 
future times. It is only the few who live and work with 
a conscious aim. But the instinct of motherly love will 
impel many among the mass of average women to offer 
you the hand of fellowship, and further your work for 
the sake of their own children. We can count most 
securely on them for the support of the necessary out- 
ward arrangements, but not for a deep comprehension 
of the spiritual meaning of our cause." 

" That may be true," said Froebel. " Everything that 
happens in the world is far more the result of uncon- 
scious impulse than of clear thought. But the time has 
come — a new stagje of life — when the buds on the 



58 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

tree of humanity must open, whence will come a new 
impelling force which will not rest, but will awaken the 
intellect and spirits of men in different degrees. Whether 
in the heart as faith or in the mind as sight, it matters 
not if it only awakes. But you, will you continue in 
this work which is to renew and rejuvenate human life 
through the right nurture of children ? " 

" Certainly I will, as far as in me lies," was my an- 
swer. " It has often seemed to me as if I saw the 
genius of humanity struggling desperately in many chil- 
dren's souls, as w'ell as in those of maturer youth, to live 
out externally the divine ideas it has brought into the 
world, to bring its ideal to the light in deeds, and to 
evolve its undeveloped, fermenting, creative force. In 
vain it stretches out its arms for a leader, in vain lifts its 
wings to rise into the heaven of the beautiful, the good, 
and the true ; the earthly weight draws it down, the fet- 
ters laid on it from birth hinder and circumscribe its 
flight, and the dust of the surrounding atmosphere con- 
ceals the forms of light which had allured it. Then 
comes more and more the desire of enjoyment, which 
should seek something higher, and which takes the senses 
into its pay, and genius sinks extinguished in ordinary 
men, or becomes a Lucifer separated from its own ideal, 
turning itself away from God, its source. 

" So have all human souls, devoted to the ideal, strug- 
gled in all time hitherto, always in the minority, the ex- 
ceptions in the world whose careers have been ordered 
by the majority, according to its own needs and wishes. 
Supposing it to be true that the mass of people are 
necessary to the earth as ballast^ and will never be ex- 
tinct in spite of all culture, then progress can only be 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 59 

conceived of in this way, namely, that the time must 
come when those inspired by genius, the nobler souls of 
humanity, will be the majority and direct and govern life 
according to its needs and wishes. 

" And if it should soon be that those w^ho are now the 
exceptions shall no longer need to live as pariahs and 
martyrs, forced to submit to the vulgarity and arrogance 
of the masses, a complete transformation w^ould have 
been effected ! The law by which the higher must domi- 
nate and absorb the lower, or at least transform it, wall 
lead necessarily to this result in the intellectual world. 
From the carrying out of your method of education, I 
expect immediately the awakening and unfolding of the 
creative powers in the souls of children to be the coun- 
terpoise to the perverse influence of generations of men 
bound into solidarity by the errors and sins of ancestors, 
and also to get rid of numberless roundabout and indirect 
ways in the labor and efforts which are necessary for 
reaching the general as well as the individual aims of 
every one. 

" If it should demand centuries in order fully to reach 
this end, to which the co-operation of very many other 
things besides is necessary, the object is so great and so 
beautiful that it is worthy every effort. If we shall suc- 
ceed in awakening countless divine sparks in humanity, 
then single ones will cease to shine pre-eminently. 

"The more I understand your idea of education, the 
more I see the important influence women may exert 
upon the development of human society. If they are 
fitted by your science of motherhood to do for families 
in general, by means of an education consciously under- 
stood and adapted to the child's nature, what hitherto a 



6o REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

few distinguished women only have been able to do, the 
foundation of at least universal morality will be laid. 
As the kindergarten and that which follows it in your 
method furnishes the elements of knowledge for all, 
by opening the outer and inner eye, preparing the way 
for original thinking, and already in childhood van- 
quishing aversion to labor by freely exercised powers 
and habits of continuous activity, there is a degree of 
culture attainable by every one, and at the same time 
the way is opened for the more gifted to cultivate them- 
selves further according to their powers and talents, and 
to rise to higher planes. More than this cannot be at- 
tained on account of the great differences of natural 
endowment, nor can more be reasonably demanded for 
the universal culture of the people. By it also the founda- 
tion will be laid for women to cultivate themselves more 
generally, according to their talents, and the exceptions 
to this rule can be of use in solving higher problems 
than the ordinary ones. Only when their own thoughts 
and modes of observation are allowed, or made possible, 
to the intellect of women, can it develop its own indi- 
viduality to the fullest extent, and can the feminine 
genius really show what it can accomplish. This goal 
lies yet in the far distance, and great impediments will 
make it difficult of attainment, but it must be attained 
if there is to be any progress." 

After we had discussed this subject still further, and 
had found ourselves generally in accordance, Froebel 
said : '' Yes, women are my natural allies, and they ought 
to help me, for I bring to them what shall relieve them 
of their inner and outer fetters, terminate their tutelage, 
and restore their dignity with that of still undervalued 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 6l 

childhood. But whoever will work with me must under- 
take a great deal, must suffer ridicule and blame, and let 
themselves be burnt or torn in pieces. Can you do 
that?" 

" I hope I could do it ; but if I should be burnt up I 
cannot do anything more for the cause," I said, laughing. 
At that time I knew nothing of the moral funeral pyres 
which awaited me because I defended the idea and 
method of Froebel against those who abused it for per- 
sonal ends, or I should not have laughed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

VISIT OF DR. GUSTAV KUHNE. 

IN the course of the summer many visitors, among 
them some well-known and distinguished men, came 
to Liebenstein, who sought out the " old friend " of chil- 
dren in Marienthal. Of this number was Dr. Gustav 
Kiihne, the well-known poet and author, and at that 
time editor of the Europa. He entered into our small 
circle with true warmth of heart, and often brightened 
it with his sparkling humor. 

Froebel and his efforts were known to him at that 
time only by hearsay, and in response to my first invita- 
tion to him to go to Marienthal, he said he had come 
to Liebenstein not to study new methods, but to give 
himself up to dolce far niente and the enjoyment of 
nature. 

It was difficult at all times to induce the visitors at 



62 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Liebenstein baths to go to Marienthal for the serious 
purpose of being converted to a new method, for the 
other walks were more attractive to the majority, and 
at a watering-place people gladly avoid all intellectual 
exertion. 

But one afternoon a few ladies and gentlemen made 
the plan of visiting the "Morgenthor" on the Altenstein, 
and calling at Marienthal on their return. Dr. Kiihne 
joined the party without knowing of this last intention, 
and when, during the walk, I alluded to the projected 
visit to Froebel, he began to banter me about my enthu- 
siasm for " panaceas for the redemption of the world," 
adding that every possible advantage which Froebel's 
method could include had its real basis in the idea and 
method of Pestalozzi, who had already uttered the word 
of our time for educational reform, and there was nothing 
to be done but to build further on that foundation. 

"What more can Froebel desire," said he, "than an 
education conformed to nature from the cradle up, the 
grounding of all instruction upon observation, the union 
of physical labor with learning, the exclusion of all arti- 
ficial support or the forcing of matters foreign and con- 
tradictory to child-nature ? Pestalozzi has offered all this 
already." 

" Froebel's method," I replied, " not only harmonizes 
with that of Pestalozzi, but receives into itself whatever 
is good and right in it, and not this only, but it has some- 
thing new and different to offer. Moreover, I will add 
that I look neither upon Froebel's nor Pestalozzi's sys- 
tem as a 'panacea for the redemption of the world,' for 
I see very well that as it has been in former times, so it 
is now. Many and various levers are needed to bring 



REMINISCENCES OF FR0E3EL. 6^ 

about the reforms demanded of the times. Therefore 
no irony. 

" In my opinion, Pestalozzi and Froebel are laboring 
for the improvement of mankind in different fields, one 
of which is as important as the other. The general prin- 
ciples enunciated by them both were already set forth by 
their predecessors and recognized by all thinkers as just. 
But the main point is still the complete application of 
these principles. The practical means necessary and suf- 
ficient for this will be found only by degrees and through 
experience, by means of new prophets. 

" Froebel's ideas with respect to the earliest education 
from the cradle up are quite different from those of Pes- 
talozzi. They are founded on a new theory of the child's 
nature, even if they do not contradict Pestalozzi's, but 
the practical means to carry out his ideas are offered by 
Froebel, not by Pestalozzi ; for by Froebel the instinct 
and educational intuition of the mother are first elevated 
to an intelligent mode of action, and the right means for 
this are presented to them. 

" And that is an important factor if the earliest educa- 
tion is, in truth, to lay the foundation for all succeeding 
stages. There can be no such thing as education in the 
cradle, unless the object of it and the means for it are 
intelligendy recognized and applied by mothers and 
teachers. Otherwise there will be as heretofore merely 
physical care; but education has also to do with the soul. 
Froebel teaches the right way to deal with the child's 
soul as it gradually awakes from unconsciousness, and 
he can do it because he understands clearly the relation 
between the unconscious condition of childhood and the 
consciousness of the mature mind. 



64 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

"That is one thing; but in another direction he goes 
be3'ond Pestalozzi. Instead of the principle of observa- 
tion on which Pestalozzi rests, Froebel combines doing 
with observing. Then he lets children represent their 
observations objectively and certainly, not only by imita- 
tion but freely by remembrance, which thereby prepares 
for inventive activity. In this way only is Pestalozzi's 
demand, that of combining power of action {konnen) with 
knowledge, fully realized. 

" The using of labor as a means of education was 
limited by Pestalozzi to mechanical work and cultivation 
of the ground. Froebel's method proposes to banish all 
that is merely mechanical, and offers the means of me- 
thodically exercising the limbs and senses in every pro- 
ductive work, and also of uniting with this gymnastics 
of the intellectual powers and capacities ; children are 
thereby elevated to productive activity in the full sense 
of the word, and artistic conception will be prepared for 
wherever the inborn capacity for it exists. 

" Has not the intellectual consciousness that stamps 
the productive w^orks of an author, and makes it his own 
spiritual property, great importance for the education of 
the people where the position of the working-class is 
daily becoming higher and higher, on which the solution 
of the social question in a great part depends ? " 

"The peculiarities of Froebel's method are not yet 
sufficiently known to me," said Dr. Kiihne, " to enable 
me to judge of their worth in this respect ; but what you 
say impels me to a closer examination of it. But let us 
have no methods that are to bring universal salvation. 
The world has already seen many new methods and 
ideas, and yet on the whole remains very much what it 
was." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 65 

" That I dispute," I answered. " The world and the 
men in it are always changing, and have changed from 
the earliest barbarism to the present stage of culture, 
although it moves slowly, and this is the consequence, in 
part, at least, of new methods and new ideas." 

" Yes," said Kiihne, " but the civilized barbarism still 
remains ; meanwhile I am very far, as you know, from 
denying progress. And you shall be satisfied ; I also 
will interest myself in Froebel." 

" If we weigh the value of Froebel and Pestalozzi for 
educational reform," I remarked, " it may be said that we 
chiefly owe to Pestalozzi the transformation in the nature 
of instruction, and thereby progress in the cultivation of 
the understanding, while Froebel pre-eminently takes up 
education as a whole, including moral culture and the 
development of character. Froebel's educational thought 
rests on one vital point not very easy to be discovered, 
and which will be entirely understood and valued only in 
the course of time. 

" But what is the use of putting these men into the 
scales ? To each his own. They were both noble and 
excellent men, true to nature, and original as few men 
are, and they had this in common, that the doctrine grew 
out of the ground of imniediateness^ of intuition, and was 
nothing artificial or reflected, and that is one of the guar- 
anties of truth." 

We had now arrived at the gate of Marienthal, and 
heard the voices of the children singing in the kinder- 
garten, whom Froebel often led himself in the afternoon, 
in order to give to his pupils instruction in the manner 
of conducting the movement plays. He was in the midst 
of the troop of little ones when we entered. 



66 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" This, then, is the house of the prophet," said some 
one in our party, as we entered the great courtyard of 
the Marienthal house, which stood back, two stories high, 
with a front of eleven windows, looking more like the 
dwelling-house of a farm than like a castle, but pleasant 
and homelike in the midst of, the old green trees that 
surrounded it. 

In a large square before the house door, to which stone 
steps led up, was a grass-plot upon which was planted 
some shrubbery, and on one side were very beautiful old 
lindens, which in flowering-time spread their fragrance 
far and wide. In their shade were some benches and 
tables on which, in good weather in summer, Froebel was 
accustomed to give his morning lessons. 

At the moment when we entered, he stood in the midst 
of the courtyard surrounded by his pupils and a troop of 
little children, who had wound themselves round him as 
their central point in the play " Little thread, little thread, 
like a little wheel," and were just beginning lo unwind 
their skein again. With glowing face and eyes beaming 
with happiness, Froebel greeted the company, immedi- 
ately asking whether they would like to see some of the 
movement plays before going up into the hall. The 
guests were quite willing. With truly childish delight he 
again conducted some of those ingenious plays, the first 
gymnastics of the childish limbs. These he had copied 
from the traditional plays of children and the people, 
leaving out their rougher features in order to make them 
serve his educational idea ; partly to make children rep- 
resent, somewhat dramatically, facts out of the life of 
nature and man. 

Froebel said, while he explained the plays to the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 67 

bystanders, "All these plays, in their elements, have 
originated from childish instincts; but they must be con- 
sciously understood in their meaning and aim, in order 
to reach their educational end. People think the child 
is only seeking amusement when it plays. That is a great 
error. Play is the first means of development of the hu- 
man mind, its first effort to make acquaintance with the 
outward world, to collect original experiences from things 
and facts, and to exercise the powers of body and mind. 
The child, indeed, recognizes no purpose in it and knows 
nothing, in the beginning,of any end which is to be reached 
when it imitates the play it sees around it, but it expresses 
its own nature, and that is human nature, in its playful 
activity. The further its development proceeds the more 
significant are the various movements which we know as 
the movements of the human being, from which all human 
culture has originated. 

" But this is only the case when these movements can 
express themselves unhindered and unfalsified, and the 
child's nature has not been perverted and led into false 
paths. The human instinct needs guidance by free move- 
ments, while the brute instinct finds its goal without 
guidance. This guidance can only be given by one who 
knows the goal which is to be reached by the manifold 
activity of the blind, natural feeling of the child. With- 
out rational, conscious guidance, childish activity degen- 
erates into aimless play instead of preparing for those 
tasks of life for which it is destined." 

" It seems to me," said one friend, " that such continu- 
ous guidance on the part of the adult must take away 
from the childish play its artlessness." 

" A continuous guidance is not practised," said Froe- 



68 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

bel ; " the children have the larger part of the day to 
play freely among themselves. There must be no irri- 
tating oversight over them ; but in the kindergarten they 
are guided to bring out their plays in such a manner as 
really to reach the aim desired by nature, that is, to serve 
for their development. Does it disturb the plant in its 
growth when the gardener protects it, prunes it, waters 
it, takes the best care he can of it ? Do not the higher 
order of animals teach their young those activities which 
they need for self-preservation ? For example, don't 
we see how the parent birds help their young in their 
first flight? The younger and more undeveloped the 
little creatures are, the more they need care and sup- 
port. The weak instinct of the human child makes it 
the most needy of all creatures. Do we follow and re- 
main true to nature only when we let its products shoot up 
without care ? Without care even plants grow rank and 
wild. All nature is destined for culture in all its stages 
and in all its kingdoms. But culture must never go 
against nature. On the contrary, it must follow its order, 
take into account its ground and its goal, acknowledge 
its law, and recognize it as its standard, or it will be a 
false culture. 

" Human culture has not always been nature becoming 
conscious to itself, as it should be ; human education 
needs a guide, which I think I have found in a general 
law of development that rules both in nature and in the 
intellectual world. Without law-abiding guidance there 
is no really free development. You see what national 
life becomes when misunderstood ideas of freedom pro- 
scribe law." 

At this moment, outside the gate, the rude cry of some 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 69 

peasants who were passing was heard, and Froebel turned 
smih"ng to the gentleman w^io had made that remark, 
asking, ''How do you like that? Is not our children's 
song better? Singing must be learned in order to have 
agreeable sounds. Where the people sing well, they are 
seldom rude." 

" The children's singing is charming," said one of the 
ladies present. "The plays are so touching to look 
upon, that I can scarcely keep back my tears. No one 
who ever sees children play like this can believe they 
are constrained, or deprived of their freedom. I have 
never seen anything so artlessly gay, so entirely uncon- 
strained." 

"Yes," said Froebel, "the kindergarten is the free 
republic* of childhood, from which everything dangerous 
to its morality is removed, as its lack of development 
requires. Childhood must be taken care of and pro- 
tected, for it cannot protect itself, and the more tender 
the age, the more it needs guidance, that the body as 
well as the soul may not be crippled." 

The children had ended their play and had sung the 
closing song, and were led to the door by the young 
ladies who were playing with them. 

Froebel now invited the company to follow him into 
the upper story of the house, where he resided. He 
crossed the great hall, situated in the midst of the 
rooms, from whose four windows we looked out upon 
the lovely landscape as far as to the distant blue moun- 
tains of the Rhone. 

* The word republic is here substituted for state by the translator, on 
account of the double meaning of the latter. In this place it does not mean 
cotidiiion. — Tr. 



70 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

In the midst of the hall stood a long table covered 
with Froebel's "gifts for play," and a multitude of little 
productions of children from various kindergartens. 

The same gentleman, a privy councillor from Berlin, 
who had made some objections to the playing of the 
children, and had also repeatedly opposed my statements, 
expressed the wish to learn the art and manner in which 
Froebel prepared for mathematical ideas by his plays 
and occupations, of which so much had been said. This 
hitherto very cold and reserved gentleman became quite 
animated when Froebel formed various figures with his 
little sticks, and then explained by these embodied lines 
the areas enclosed in the different surfaces and angles, 
and especially the relations of size and number of the 
geometrical figures, and then still further the simple rep- 
resentation of the numbers, beginning with the unit, and 
showed also the representations of form and numbers 
with other materials. 

The figures made with the little sticks were only 
loosely laid together, without being fastened, but broad 
slats being united crosswise and interlaced formed per- 
manent figures. Paper, cut in squares and folded, 
showed the relations of surfaces, and also geometrical 
forms. The perception of mathematical relations, as 
matters of fact, needs no explanation. The child under- 
stands, by manipulation of various materials, and by 
easily comprehended directions, the relations of size and 
number, as simple facts, without any abstraction, through 
mere observation of the forms brought out from them, 
without reasoning upon it, for which they are too young. 

The councillor thought these demonstrations were 
remarkably clear in their simplicity. Only he doubted, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 7 1 

in a measure, whether this embodiment of abstractions 
could lead later to mathematical conceptions, which are 
of purely intellectual nature, whose analogies are only- 
found in the human mind. 

"But are not all abstractions derived from something 
actual and physical, and does not the whole material 
world rest upon mathematical relations, — indeed, does 
not all and everything imply relations of size and num- 
ber ? " I ventured to ask. " With my small knowledge of 
mathematics, for example, it would be quite impossible 
for me to understand mathematical truths, if I could 
not perceive them by means of a visible representation. 
Therefore it seems to me quite undoubted that if these 
truths are to be taught and conceived by means of words, 
the preceding perception of physical relations is needed 
to explain them completely. According to Froebel's 
method, the child, like the uncultivated artisan, makes 
progressive experiments which teach it by experience, 
and by this way of experience men arrived originally at 
knowledge ; can mathematical knowledge be any excep- 
tion to this? Mathematics remain the same whether 
expressed in the human mind or in the physical world, 
and the logic of both, therefore, has only one source, — 
the Divine mind." 

The councillor smiled, and said : " Much may be said 
upon that, but we must not mix up the intellectual with 
the physical too much." 

" A dualistic theory of the world," whispered my neigh- 
bor on the other side ; and a young painter sitting oppo- 
site turned and asked Froebel, somewhat impatiently, 
whether the contemplation of the beautiful, at the child- 
age, would not be more conducive to the awakening of 



72 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the imagination than occupation with mathematical fig- 
ures, which are not beautiful. 

" You are quite right," answered Froebel ; " the beauti- 
ful is the best means of education for childhood, as it 
has been the best means for the education of the human 
race. Look, here are my forms of beauty." And he 
unrolled a long strip of paper on which was lithographed 
a series of figures, quite simple and symmetrical, copies 
of the forms laid by the children with delight, with Froe- 
bel's eight cubes. " These forms, in spite of their regu- 
larity, are called forms of beauty. The mathematical 
forms, which I designate forms of knowledge, give only 
the skeleton from which the beautiful form develops 
itself. Look at the figures on the old Egyptian build- 
ings ; they are always straight lines which show^ mathe- 
matical relations. Not until you get to the curve line, 
which came forth later in the development of art, do you 
have beauty of form. I take the same course in my 
educational method. Symmetry of the parts which make 
up these simple figures gives the impression of beauty as 
harmony to the childish eye. It must have the elements 
of the beautiful before it is in a condition to comprehend 
it in its whole extent. Only what is simple gives light 
to the child at first. He can only operate with a small 
number of materials when he is beginning to make forms, 
therefore I give only eight cubes for this object. But the 
material for making forms iacreas£S by degrees, pro- 
gressing according to law, as nature prescribes. The 
simple wild-rose existed before the double one was 
formed by careful culture. Children are too often over- 
whelmed with quantity and vadety of material, that 
makes formation impossible to them. And where shall 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 73 

we take the rule, if not from nature ? We mortals can 
only imitate what the dear God has created, therefore 
we must make use of the same law according to which 
he creates. 

" With this law I give children a guide for creating 
and because it is the law according to which they, as 
creatures of God, have themselves been created, they 
can easily apply it. It is born with them, and it also 
guides the animal instinct in its activity. 

*' You see," he went on, turning with shining eyes to 
the company, " the time has now arrived when men are 
coming to the consciousness of their own being and of 
the law which rules them, and according to which they 
are active, therefore the earliest childhood must be 
guided according to this law, and at first in the activity 
of play. Consciousness of the law is only prepared for 
by action and the application of the law. Unconscious- 
ness is raised to consciousness chiefly by action." 

Froebel illustrated these remarks by some examples, 
showing how the law, which he named " connection of 
opposites," was applied in the childish occupations, but 
nevertheless he was not completely intelligible to most 
of those present. 

New views can break their way only gradually, after the 
general theory out of which they have sprung has been 
well diffused. Froebel's theory rested upon a profound 
intuition, which will be looked upon as hypothesis until 
its law, or rather the application of it (for the recogni- 
tion of the law in general is as old as philosophic think- 
ing), is scientifically established, and that by the empirical 
method of investigation. 

A question of Dr. Kiihne's about the teaching of Ian- 



74 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

guage according to his method, phmged Froebel into 
explanations about the origin of letters, their significance 
in relation to ideas, and the like, a matter which involved 
him in inquiries of a scientific nature too deep to have 
an educational importance at present, but interesting as 
the original beginning of all and every side of human 
nature.* 

By such digressions from his subject, in which Froebel 
often pursued his own thoughts without respect to his 
hearers, though revealing new relations of his idea, he 
often greatly confused his statements and gave room for 
the criticism that they were incomprehensible. 

Dr. Kiihne was led to the remark, ''Froebel reminds 
me of that wise man of antiquity who discovered a nat- 
ural law while in the bath, and ran naked through the 
streets, dripping from the tub, shouting, ' Eureka ! Eu- 
reka ! '" 

In spite of these confusing digressions, Froebel's state- 
ments always called forth warm commendations from 
receptive minds, as a real strong conviction of truth 
alone can do. 

Some of the ladies present, wearied with the disserta- 
tions of the men upon the origin of letters, were examin- 
ing the various productions of the kindergarten, and 
could scarcely believe that very young children could 
produce such. 

* Before the date of this conversation Dr. Kraitsir, the Hungarian phi- 
lologist, had published in Boston his "Significance of the Alphabet," and 
endeavored to shovv^ its value for the education of the present. It was ably 
reviewed by one of our greatest scholars in the " North American Review " of 
the spring of 1848, and in 1851 Dr. Howard Crosby, of the New York Uni- 
versity, succeeded in publishing by subscription in New York Dr. Krait- 
sir's fuller work, " The Nature of Language and the Language of Nature," 
G. P. Putnam, 1851.— Tr. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 75 

"It is all very charming," said one of the ladies, "but 
it seems to me the effort must be too great for the tender 
age of children. In the first years of life, I think chil- 
dren should only play undisturbed as they can and 
will" 

"Certainly," I replied ; "but if the child is to find sat- 
isfaction in his play, the aim of nature must be reached, 
and this aim is bodily and mental development. Play — 
that is, the first childish activity — is now left to chance, 
therefore it reaches its aim but imperfectly; it needs 
guidance, and this guidance every genuine mother and 
educator naturally gives, when the child desires it, as is 
always the case. ' Play with me ! ' is the cry of every 
child who has not playmates of its own age.* A child 
can play only for a time by itself, and with dolls, or 
prattle to the creations of its own imagination ; then 
it comes with its never-ceasing questions to the grown- 
up, — a living note of interrogation, which it must be in 
order to develop its mind. Even when these questions 
are answered suitably to the requirement (and how often 
does this happen with the otherwise busy mother or 
nurse?) it is only in ivords^ rarely understood well by the 
child. It is necessary first to know the things that words 
describe, — that is, matter and its properties. Froebel's 
gifts and occupations offer just this knowledge. 

"The material prepared for this end furnishes oppor- 
tunity to make experiments on material things, and it is 
that which the child seeks in the blind gropings of his 
undeveloped impulses. The effort of his little powers 
is increased by giving him the requisite material, and 

* They always prefer mamma, if they can have her, for a playmate, and 
is not this because they enjoy the guidance ? — Tr. 



76 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

showing him the right use of it ; or rather is not the 
thing made easier for him thereby ? 

" For example, the child tries to make a form out of a 
piece of paper, — a box, a little bird, or something else. 
He does not succeed, because the paper has not the 
right form, and he does not know the requisite manipu- 
lations. In the kindergarten he receives paper of a 
square form, and is shown how he can bring out the de- 
sired thing from it. Besides that, he is instructed in an 
easy manner how to invent new forms at pleasure, in 
endless variety, by application of Froebel's law of forma- 
tion. The forms and figures thus brought out, which, 
going from the simplest, proceed step by step easily to 
the most complex, only appear difficult and beyond the 
child's powers when we do not know how they have pro- 
ceeded from each other." 

I showed the ladies the beginning of Froebel's cutting 
occupation, by which, with two or three cuts in squares 
of paper, folded in a certain way, the most varied forms 
are obtained, and it called forth general surprise and 
astonishment. 

" That is remarkable, truly splendid ! " said the lady, 
who had raised the objection. " Now I understand the 
thing, and I take back my remark." 

" In such ways," I added, " the child learns by playing 
the most important mechanical manipulations, and his 
sense of form and beauty is cultivated. The important 
thing is that he becomes accustomed to consecutive 
action, and by productive occupation, which gives him 
real pleasure, is made capable very early of useful little 
acts, and is prepared for later work. Moral gain is at- 
tained in the highest degree, and how necessary is this 
in our time ! 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 77 

"All that the development of human culture has 
gradually found and practised by experiment, discovery, 
and invention in the course of thousands of years is 
recognized by Froebel in his principle of law ; and the 
technical skill thereby gained he has reduced to the 
simplest and most original manipulations, in order to at- 
tain the universal elements of proper work for childhood. 
"These occupations, however, like everything else, 
can be misused if unintelligent kindergartners occupy 
the children too long, or give them too difficult tasks." 
" A remarkable discovery ! " 
"Truly, full of significance for our time!" 
" Who could have looked for such genius in this plain 
and unprepossessing man ? " 

" How touchingly childlike in his whole manner ! " 
" To devote his whole life to the welfare of mankind 
in childhood ! " 

Such were the various exclamations concerning Froe- 
bel, and his method of education, by the several indi- 
viduals of the company during our half-hour's walk back 
from Marienthal to Liebenstein. They all expressed 
themselves greatly satisfied with the visit, and with Froe- 
bel's method of education. Even the Berlin councillor 
thought "the use of Froebel's method, especially for 
mathematics, might bring about a very important reform 
in schools." 

Dr. Kuhne said : " The thing is really of great impor- 
tance, and supplements Pestalozzi's method. This Froe- 
bel is an exceptional, a rare man ; so much poetical ele- 
vation in his simple, homely way of acting, and such joy 
in self-sacrifice as his are necessary if a universal, hu- 
mane work is to succeed." 



7 8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" And now, will you set your pen in motion in favor 
of the subject ? " I asked. 

" I will seek for some way in which I can further it," 
said Dr. Kiihne. And he kept his word ; for in the very 
next number of the Enropa he described his " Thurin- 
gian Wanderings," which in novel form gave the visit to 
Marienthal, mingling truth and poetry; and, later, a 
biographical sketch of " Froebel and his Efforts." This 
was republished in a fuller form in the book entitled 
" German Men and Women," and after Froebel's death 
appeared a pamphlet entitled " Froebel's Death, and the 
Success of his Teaching." For this last great thanks are 
due to Dr. Kiihne, for he was the first well-known writer, 
not pedagogical, who turned his attention to Froebel's 
cause, and by his pen introduced him into circles which 
otherwise never would have known him. 

Whether the warmly expressed recognition given by 
other members of this little walking party ever brought 
any practical support to the cause is not known to me. 



CHAPTER VII. 

VISIT OF DR. HIECKE. 

WHEN Froebel came, on one of the following after- 
noons, to the " private hour " that had been 
agreed upon between us, I informed him that the gym- 
nasium director, Hiecke of Merseburg, had just been 
with me, and that he was desirous of making Froebel's 
acquaintance, and would come to Marienthal with me 
on the following day. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 79 

" Ah ! the gentleman who asked me those pecuHar 
questions, which you sent to me last winter from Merse- 
burg ? " asked Froebel. 

"The same," I answered; "one of the most learned 
and distinguished of our contemporary school-directors, 
who can be of great use to us if he will take up the sub- 
ject." 

During a sojourn of several weeks in Merseburg, in 
February of this year, where I had given almost daily 
lectures on Froebel's educational method, some of my 
most zealous auditors — besides my friends School- 
councillor Karo and his charming wafe — were Profes- 
sors Hiecke and Wieck, the old blind privy councillor 
Weisse, brother of Froebel's former superior at the Ber- 
lin Museum, and the School-director Liiben, who had 
just entered upon his duties there. 

Whoever saw these men, and others, especially teach- 
ers of the town-school there, and saw how enthusiastically 
they received Froebel's idea, and undertook to study it, 
and to further its extension, would hardly understand, 
in view of this example, which was followed by others 
without number, why the cause advanced so slowly and 
painfully to recognition. Those here mentioned have, 
however, favored it honestly, and even in the public 
press. At that time Director Liiben had some articles 
in recommendation of it printed in the Merseburg weekly 
paper. 

The letters sent to Froebel from there (which, among 
my letters returned to me by Madame Froebel, lie be- 
fore me) contain expressions of the highest and deepest 
acknowledgment from my auditors of that time. It is 
there said, among other things : " Hiecke, a philosophi- 



8o REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

cally cultivated mind, has talked much and profoundly 
with me about your idea and method. He said the sub- 
ject was one of the most far-reaching importance, incal- 
culable in its consequences," etc. He was especially 
interested in the fundamental idea of" sphere, cube, and 
cylinder," and he said, when I explained it to him, 
" Had Froebel expressed this idea alone, it could be 
called a great deed. It is possible for Froebel's cause 
to advance so suddenly into general acceptance that 
within a year his judgment may have authority in all 
Germany. But for that there must be able co-operation 
through the press, and its relations to present politics 
must not be forgotten." 

I said to Froebel, " When I spoke to Hiecke and 
Wieck on the following day, they said that they had been 
occupied day and night in thinking of your educational 
idea, and would like to know how you stood with Krause 
and Herbart. These questions I was not able to answer 
sufficiently. But the idea has struck a spark in these 
minds, and you will be convinced of this, if these men 
come to you in Marienthal, as Hiecke and Liiben 
propose to do. 

" Hiecke desires to know your answers to the ques- 
tions noted on the accompanying sheet. He has com- 
missioned me to express to you his regards, and his wish 
to make your acquaintance. At my request he sends 
you herewith two copies of the ' Educational Monthly,' 
which contain two essays of his. He will request his 
friend Gude to make himself acquainted with your cause, 
and, as much as possible, from your own lips. The 
other schoolmen also have had communication with their 
colleagues on the subject. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 8 1 

" You see, then, Merseburg is favorable to us, and our 
cause has gained here a real triumph, although it was 
before entirely unknown. The higher circles of society, 
indeed, are here, as everywhere, lethargic and indifferent 
about important things." 

So far the extracts from my letter to Froebel. The 
questions asked Froebel by Hiecke (which also lie before 
me) are as follows : — 

" I. What is the course of development under your 
system up to the age of 18-20 years ? 

" 2. What use do you make of foreign languages ; and 
the order and distribution of these over the different ages? 

" 3. The choice, order, and ages for the epoch-making 
achievements in the various arts, e. g. the use of the 
Odyssey ? 

"4. What German poets, and in what order, would 
you use chiefly ? 

" 5. How far and in what way should Tradition be 
regarded ? " 

Froebel had never answered these questions, — which, 
indeed, lay very far from the educational field in which he 
was working, — and had written to me on a former occa- 
sion, when I reminded him of them, "that they could 
be answered in his sense only after a better understand- 
ing of his educational cause, which rested on a different 
foundation from those questions, the details of which had 
scarcely been considered by him," etc. 

Froebel said the same thing at this time, and added, 
with childish naivete^ " I wish these learned men would 



82 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

not always ask me about things that they understand 
much better than I do ! " 

" The schoohnen will want the connection of your 
educational method with school-instruction to be fully 
explained if they are to give it — or, perhaps, indeed, 
take away from it — their interest," I replied. "The ear- 
liest childhood is too far distant from them, even if they 
are fathers of families, and the majority reject any plan 
of methodically influencing the early years. 

"They have no idea that you have to do with the prin- 
ciple of the development of the human being, and not 
with methods of instruction in the school. To questions 
asked with this view I continually make answer that you 
agree with Pestalozzi's method, that you desire only to 
supplement it and to add some things to it, and to bring 
the school into nearer relation with real life." 

" Very well," said Froebel ; " but for this purpose I 
propose to take, in one way and another, many hours 
from school-lessons, to devote to educational work. And 
this will not be listened to by the learned men, who 
see salvation in the amount of knowledge which the 
school gives to its pupils for their life-journey, as if all 
must or even could be learned men ! You know what 
M. and S. said about that, and how they made the 
strongest opposition to your painstaking for the kinder- 
gartens, and how they turned the mind of Minister W., 
who was already half won over." 

"The minister is coming here, nevertheless, to ac- 
quaint himself with the subject and with yourself," I 
answered, " and, indeed, very soon. But you must not 
class Hiecke with these people ; he is not so one-sided. 
On the contrary, he takes a broad view, and is capable 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 8^ 

of enthusiasm. And you must not forget when you talk 
with him that he is a philologist and a philosopher, and 
not a natural philosopher in your sense/' 

Much as Froebel liked visits, and especially those of 
educators, which gave him an opportunity to explain his 
educational method, yet he was somewhat afraid of them 
on account of the frequent experience of not being able 
to make himself understood, at least completely. More- 
over, he felt that he was not a " learned man," inasmuch 
as he lacked much positive knowledge in this depart- 
ment of science. And very naturally every one of these 
men desired a special reference to the relations of the 
method with his own particular department of science. 
The result was, that some left Froebel ill satisfied, and 
admitted that he was a " good man," who was working 
very usefully for the improvement of children's games, 
and for adapting them to the preparation for school, — ■ 
but nothing more ! Others, philosophically educated 
men, had some fixed philosophical system by which to 
level their judgment, and if Froebel's theories would not 
adapt themselves to these they were rejected. 

How often did Froebel's brow contract into painful 
folds, when in such discussions he could not extort any 
understanding, and knew that on the other hand he pos- 
sessed little authority. 

The obstacle to arriving at a mutual understanding 
was, in most cases, that he took his point of departure 
from the things of the concrete -world, i. e. from the 
thoughts made objective, and from the laws of the Diiine 
mind expressed therein, while his opponents would admit 
no other starting-point than their own Ego or their sub- 
jective ijiner experience. 



84 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

And this could not in truth be otherwise, since the 
struggle after new knowledge for the solution of the old 
question — the connection of the material world, or un- 
conscious nature, with the intellectual world, or the con- 
scious mind of man — was just opening new paths in 
which new problems presented themselves, which would 
require centuries for their complete solution, so far as 
this is vouchsafed at all to the human mind on earth. 

Froebel's idea, the " connection of contrasts " in the 
course of the process of development, — since in the 
world of phenomena no absolute contrasts, but only rela- 
tive ones exist, and the absolute only exists as a principle, 
— was almost always misunderstood, especially by those 
minds who considered the dualistic theory of the world 
as the only correct one. These generally rejected the 
Froebelian theory before they had examined its point of 
departure closely. They would easily have learnt that 
Froebel did not deny the truth of dualism, but recog- 
nized it as a part only and not as the whole truth, which 
he found rather in the repeated resolution of it, and in 
the final harmony or connection of contrasts, i. e. in the 
principle^ and not at all in the finite things and relations 
and their development. 

If by some of these denying spirits, penetrated with 
the praxis of Froebel's method, Froebel's thoughts could 
be better understood, their deep concurrence with the 
ideas of the time would be recognized, and they would 
be welcomed as one of the means of preparing minds for 
the higher theories of the world which are forming. But, 
indeed, what a request, to ask highly educated men to 
plunge into children's plays ! 

And if these doubters were referred to Froebel's writ- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 85 

ings, — these fragments and aphorisms of philosophy and 
pedagogics, as they undoubtedly are, — then it was to 
these one-sidedly developed minds very bad indeed. Then 
it was said, "There is nothing here oi system."' "These 
theories of unity are untenable from the standpoint of 
philosophical science." "The style is intolerable." "The 
principles are Pestalozzi's." " The method is not carried 
out to the higher ages, up to the school." " There are 
some good and even striking things there, but confused, 
and on the whole unintelligible," etc. 

Only a few penetrated into it to find its deep meaning, 
in spite of the faulty manner of expression, the lack of 
system, and the merely aphoristical views of a mind living 
entirely under the power of intuition. These few were 
sometimes seized hold of by the truth lying at the foun- 
dation of them, so that they must follow them whether 
they would or not. But for the great majority the interest 
was a transient one, that was soon obliterated by some 
other subject of thought lying closer. 

So it has resulted that, notwithstanding all recognition 
on the part of individuals, even of authorities, the cause 
in its great whole and in its deeper significance remained 
unknown, and its spread has progressed almost alone 
through the — mainly not understood — praxis in the 
kindergarten. 

It was not until the following day that I spoke with 
Hiecke after his first interview with Froebel, since I had 
been prevented from accompanying him to Marienthal. 
As I feared, the two men, standing on entirely different 
grounds, had only partially understood each other. Hiecke 
was a little disappointed, although, like every one who 



86 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

had a heart, he was impressed by Froebel's devotion and 
joyful sacrifice to the cause of human welfare. 

" He has Pestalozzi's love, and a great power of per- 
suasion," he said. He admitted also the usefulness of 
a preparation conformable to nature for children before 
and for the school, but the great significance of a me- 
thodical educational influence during the earliest instruc- 
tive life of the child, before the awakening of personal 
consciousness, was not obvious to him. This appeared 
to him almost fantastical. The school was for him the 
chief factor in education, and in it languages and aesthetic 
culture, which especially interested him, could, in his 
view, only be gained by instruction. 

" But there is other instruction than that given by 
7i>ords,'^ I replied ; " practice, action, is a self-instruction 
which the school cannot give sufficiently. All musical 
theory does not teach one how to play an instrument 
without practical exercise at the same time. And all 
morality learned with words and out of books does not 
lead to a moral life, to moral power of action. Knowl- 
edge and good-will are not sufficient to enable one to 
rescue a fellow-creature who has fallen into the water; 
one must have learned to swim. Here are the defects 
of the church and of the school ! " 

Hiecke said, " I do not deny that something must be 
done in this direction, and I think that Froebel has come 
just at the right time to help in the work begun, of sim- 
plifying the work of teachers and scholars in the school, 
and of cutting down the time for it, in a certain degree, 
in order to use it for bodily exercises and for gaining 
practical power. This is especially true of the people's 
schools. Froebel's school gardens can be of great use, — ■ 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 87 

if Froebel will only create for us the necessary situation 
for them in the great cities," he added, laughing. 

" The cause will be wrecked first on this want. Such 
thorough-going changes of the whole school-organism 
involve great difficulties, which it will require the work of 
long years to overcome. Moreover, the classical schools 
and the gymnasia could take but a small share in a re- 
form of that kind." 

I answered : " As to the question about land, some 
fields in the neighborhood of the cities could easily be 
obtained for cultivation by the school-youth. By this 
means labor would be saved on the one side, while on 
the other the powers of the youth would be increased, 
and public economy would make a real gain." 

At that time — twenty-five years ago — it seemed 
almost Utopian to wish to carry the kindergarten on 
in such a manner to school-gardens, and quite so to 
hope to bring about workshops, art studios, playgrounds, 
great excursions, etc., for the school-youth.^* 

To-day we see the Austrian government assisting in 
every way the labors of Professor Dr. E. Schwab, in 
Vienna, in founding school gardens ; and since 1872 an 
order of the Minister of Instruction requires the school- 
inspectors to join a kindergarten with every school w^here 
it is possible to do so, makes the knowledge of Froebel's 
method obligatory upon elementary teachers, and pre- 
scribes it as a branch of the teaching at the seminaries. 

Within the last two years a great number of school- 
gardens have been established, in Austrian Silesia, in 

* See further on this subject, " Education by Work," by B. von Maren- 
holtz-Biilow. 



88 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Lower Austria, in Moravia, in Tyrol, etc. In St. Poel- 
ten and Neustadt, near Vienna, large school-gardens 
have been made, likewise in Briinn, Laibach, Krems, etc., 
and also in many villages, under the initiative of the 
community. The " Agricultural Society," the " Trade- 
Union," and other associations in Vienna have aided the 
work successfully begun by Dr. Schwab, who has worked 
unceasingly and with the greatest energy. The Minister 
of Agriculture, also, has given his assistance by the assign- 
ment of land, and invites proposals for the management 
of the matter, from all parts of the country, as far as 
Bukowina. Schwab's efforts for the foundation of school- 
workshops, in which the first experiments have been 
made, meet with a like sympathy. 

To this is to be added the activity of the Dekans, Dr. 
Hoerfarter, in Kufstein, in Tyrol, who, besides a kinder- 
garten and a training institution for kindergartners, has 
founded a school-garden for the school-children of the 
place, and labors for the cause in every way with devo- 
tion worthy of great praise. 

Such successful practical beginnings in one country 
cannot but have speedy results in other lands, of which 
I hope one of the first will be Germany, where single be- 
ginnings on the part of private individuals have already 
been made. 

An educational reform of this sort is so pressingly 
demanded by the present condition of culture, entirely 
apart from its being a consequence of Froebel's educa- 
tional method, that its realization cannot be very far 
distant. 

At the time of which I am speaking (1851) but a few 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 89 

believing ears were found in our Liebenstein circle for 
Froebel's cause, and the school-men at that period sel- 
dom went into anything that was not immediately practi- 
cal. Therefore the views of Hiecke were the more 
encouraging. 

Women were far more urgent than men for the reform, 
perhaps because they did not so well understand the 
difficulties that lay in the way of it. If the Duchess of 
Weimar had not died so soon, a first attempt might pos- 
sibly have been made with her assistance, since she not 
only felt a warm interest in Froebel's cause, but also 
cherished a lively wish to see it carried into execution. 

On the occasion of a visit to her when the Countess 
of Hessen-Phillipsstahl was present, and the conversa- 
tion turned upon the kindergarten and the furthering of 
it, the interest of the Countess was so warmly excited 
that she determined to bring Froebel's method into the 
educational work of her own family. 

A little grandson of hers, son of the reigning Count, 
four years old, sickly and almost weak-minded, was so 
backward in his development that he did not even incline 
to the usual play of children, and was almost always in 
an apathetic and sluggish condition of intellect. On the 
next day after our conversation the Countess visited 
Froebel, and after nearer acquaintance with the practical 
occupations of the kindergarten, and learning the princi- 
ple on which they were founded, she made an agreement 
with him that one of the pupils then taking the lessons 
should, at the end of her course, come to Phillipsstahl 
as the educator of the little prince."*^ 

* Fraulein Marie Kramer undertook this with much zeal, so that the par- 
ents, as well as his grandmother, acknowledged the advantage of the method 
very warmly. 



90 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Froebel was exceedingly pleased with the judgment of 
the Princess, and hoped from it a wider recognition of 
his method in the higher circles of society. 

On the day when Hiecke went with me to Marienthal, 
in the afternoon, after long discussions on the subject, 
Froebel's very anxiety, or his fatigue, rendered him less 
capable than usual of clear expression. His explana- 
tions, however, of the practical bearings of the method 
were recognized by Hiecke entirely, though it lay far 
away from his own pedagogic domain. But as soon as 
the fundamental principle came into view, the mutual 
understanding was in a measure destroyed, and Hiecke 
was not quite satisfied with what Froebel said, and at the 
moment Froebel was unable to explain it well. 

On our way back to Liebenstein, Hiecke ^aid that the 
philosophic foundation of the thing was unsatisfactory to 
him ; he must especially disagree on one point, namely, 
the supposition Froebel seemed to go upon, that children 
had by nature exclusively good dispositions. 

I denied that decidedly, but I had to admit that such 
a misinterpretation was natural from the statements that 
Froebel had made. I undertook to give him Froebel's 
theory myself, somewhat in the following form : — 

"The dispositions of the human being are destined by 
God's will to develop themselves on all sides into the 
good and the perfect, — the image of God. Therefore 
these dispositions cannot in the end be sinful or evil, 
so far as they are given by God in order to realize this 
destiny. 

"Froebel says, in his 'Education of Man,' 'Qualities 
evil in themselves cannot be found in man unless we 
understand the finite, bodily, and transient as evil in 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 9 1 

their nature and consequences ; these have their neces- 
sary basis in the destination of man to conscious reason 
and freedom. M in must be able to err, in order to 
become good, honest, and virtuous. Whoever would 
enact the divine and eternal with self-determination and 
freedom must be permitted to do finite and earthly things. 
Since God has willed to make himself known in the 
finite, this must be done in the finite. Whoever calls 
whatever is temporal, individual, and bodily evil in itself, 
despises nature itself, creation, that which is ; in short, he 
blasphemes God in a special sense.' " 

I added, " The freedom of the will, necessarily given 
to man in order that he shall develop himself as a rea- 
sonable being, having prevented the normal development 
of his powers by capriciousness and error, he has by 
these been led into unlawful paths contrary to the laws 
of God, and brought on \}a^ fall of man.''' 

How far Froebel considered this fact in education can 
be seen from an example in his " Mother and Cosset 
Songs," where he refers to the fall of the child as an 
unavoidable fact, and points to its application as a whole- 
some experience. 

Froebel denies by no means that the deviation from 
the lawful and normal way of development must have 
changed and affected the nature of human dispositions, 
and still must continue to do so. One sees these con- 
sequences, even in the animal and plant world, where 
deficiency of care and culture, even in the higher races 
of the domestic animals, for instance in the horse, causes 
deteriorated posterity, or when poorly cultivated plants 
bear imperfect seeds, leading to the degradation of the 
species. But, on the contrary, we also see that proper 



92 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

care and culture improve and ennoble species of the ani- 
mal and vegetable world, and overcome the deterioration 
which has taken place. 

Froebel desires that the educator should treat the child 
as good and pure until an instance of the opposite nature 
appears, since no one can know when the moment of the 
first failing or individual fall takes place in the child who 
has inherited different qualities from parents and ances- 
tors, and in different combinations, out of which arise 
this or that form of error which we call sinful. No less 
are the inborn dispositions modified and shaped by the 
influences surrounding the child which act favorably or 
unfavorably upon its nurture and education. The dispo- 
sitions themselves, before they are developed in either 
direction, are neither good nor bad, — they are the seeds 
out of which, according to circumstances, good or evil 
may proceed. There are dispositions destined by God 
for goodness that, in a measure, are perverted to evil by 
the parents and ancestors of all children, and which are 
inherited by posterity with a thousand modifications, as 
are the tendencies to bodily weakness and malady. In- 
herited weaknesses are of mental as well as of bodily 
nature, but together with these weaknesses and faults are 
also found good and healthy qualities ; with inherited 
tendency to sin is also found in the human being in- 
herited tendency to virtue. 

But if criminal families show an inheritance of misused 
powers and dispositions, it should not be inferred that 
every criminal's child must certainly walk in the footsteps 
of his parent. Let him be brought into a good moral 
atmosphere ; give him a good education, and he will per- 
haps become a noble and useful man. Let one only look 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 93 

into the eyes of children of even the worst families, and 
one will not doubt the ever-regenerating power of the 
human being. If it were not so, the Christian idea of 
redemption would have no significance. 

The progressive culture acknowledged by all genera- 
tions, and therefore by every individual in each genera- 
tion, must by degrees lead to the victory over evil in man, 
notwithstanding the thousand backward steps of individ- 
uals, and even of individual nations ; and the dispositions 
that have been injured by sin must be ennobled and re- 
instated in their original purity. To what degree this is 
possible upon earth, what special historical acts and reve- 
lations of Divine Providence have been at work for it 
hitherto and will work for it in the future, in order that 
the final practical redemption from evil, determined by 
God, and the possible perfection of the human being on 
earth shall be reached, is another question, whose solu- 
tion is not denied or doubted in the Christian point of 
view. The superficial views of our time, which deny 
every deep idea, Froebel did not share in any degree. 
If any one has ever seized the innermost kernel of the 
Christian idea, and recognized its eternal truth, it was 
he. In one of his treatises he says : " The relation of 
man to God has been determined conclusively and ex- 
haustively, for all time, by the Christian religion." 

Because this eternal truth of the Christian religion is 
yet really known to but very few ; because it has been 
hidden by the innumerable misconceptions of centuries ; 
and because God wills that the contents of our faith 
shall be brought to light, new means of help must come 
into the world for that end. A better education, really 
corresponding to the nature of the human being, belongs 



94 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

undeniably to these means of help, and particularly if — 
as in the case of Froebel — the law of the development 
of the human being is recognized and applied. Just 
because Froebel recognizes the danger of departure 
from the right way, and the possibility of the perversion 
of human qualities in their first budding, he considered 
the education of the earliest childhood the most impor- 
tant. If the child had come into the world with only 
perfectly good and pure disposition, the early educa- 
tional influence would not have been necessary ; edu- 
cation would have been superfluous, because human 
dispositions and powers would then have developed 
themselves aright spontaneously, according to their 
nature. 

But the good disposition of the child will be in dan- 
ger, according to Froebel, of being turned contrary to 
good by nothing more easily than by supposing evil and 
sin to exist where it has not appeared ; for example, to 
suppose untruth where this has been far from the child's 
soul. Thereby a child is robbed of its innocence, as it 
were, before it is time, before the opposite has mani- 
fested itself definitely. Froebel requires the educator to 
take for granted the good and the pure in the child, 
to proceed tentatively, and not to look upon the child as 
a little devil. Without in any way denying the signifi- 
cance and importance of theological and philosophical 
studies and investigations for deeper knowledge of the 
truth, it must be granted that in reference to the imme- 
diate practical education of children and the masses 
little has been gained hitherto. The truth expressed in 
words alone is not enough to form the moral man. 
Moral practices are needed to insure subsequent free 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 95 

moral action. These moral practices are insufficiently 
brought into action in the present mode of education. 
Froebel wishes to introduce them, and to put doing and 
creating in the place of word instruction. 

The striving of our time to find reason ruling even in 
the unconscious being, and to discover and establish the 
relations of the human being to nature and to the organ- 
isms subordinated to him, exhibits certainly a point of 
development willed by God, and will serve to compen- 
sate humanity for the long-continued estrangement of 
man from nature. 

In so far as Froebel took his starting-point in the 
knowledge of real things (the works of God), he also 
goes in the same direction, and he does so in the convic- 
tion that truth in the word, and through the word (doc- 
trine), can only be set in clearer light, and be more 
deeply understood thereby, so far as one revelation con- 
firms the other, which they must do, since they have 
their common origin in God. The deeper knowledge 
of human beings as " children of nature " (as Froe- 
bel says) is the best means by which to discover and 
combat budding evil, since that evil is in the natural and 
not in the spiritual being of man. 

Froebel has certainly not established any philosophical 
system, at least not in words, but a deep philosophic 
and religious view of the world lies at the foundation of 
his " Education of Man," and is embodied, in a meas- 
ure, in his means of education, which carry back the 
ideas of the human mind to their origin in the material 
world (God's world), and furnish symbols of it. 

In spite of his different point of departure from that 
of the existing philosophic systems, Froebel is not on 



96 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

that account antagonistic to them, at least not so far as 
they stand on the ground of theism. He particularly 
agrees, on many sides, with the views of the philosopher 
Krause, notwithstanding the difference of their stand- 
points. 

Through the knowledge of pure human nature, in spite 
of its actual degeneracy and obscuration, he wishes to 
establish the right goal for practical education quite in 
unison with the representation of this pure human na- 
ture in Christianity, and wishes thus to preserve it, if 
possible, from mistakes in the period of unconsciousness, 
or during the human life of instinct in childhood. 

These ground principles for a new system of educa- 
tion, and the practical means corresponding to it, are 
given by Froebel. Upon these grounds his intellectual 
descendants can build further to meet the present wants ; 
the life of man does not suffice to do more. This prob- 
lem will not be fully solved till the present intellectual 
struggle for a broader general theory of the universe 
shall have brought a satisfactory result. Meanwhile it is 
of the greatest importance that the significance of Froe- 
bel's idea be sought in itself and its further development, 
and not in the commentaries of his followers. 

After exchanging much conversation with Hiecke, he 
promised to suspend his judgment till he had studied 
Froebel's " Education of Man," and had learned to 
understand the cause better ; expressing, meantime, his 
full concurrence with the practical means. 

The shortness of his Liebenstein residence prevented 
his entering into it any further at the moment. The 
acceptance of his new place as director of the gymna- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 97 

sium in Griefswald called him away, and claimed his 
whole activity for a long time. Besides that, the short- 
ness of his life may have prevented him from studying 
into the cause any further ; it would otherwise be incon- 
ceivable that that profound mind, after having received 
so favorable an impression of the cause, should not have 
left behind him a well-founded judgment for publication, 
although there are not wanting examples of the loss of a 
lively and enthusiastic sympathy when the occupations 
of one's calling, and interests attracting one in opposite 
directions, prevent a comprehensive survey of a subject. 

A corresponding elaboration of Froebel's writings 
would at any rate have in a great measure made the 
study of his educational method easy to the specialists 
who were overburdened with occupations, and been a 
great help towards its acceptance on their part. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF FESTIVALS. 

FROEBEL and Middendorff had already in the pre- 
ceding summer often spoken of the plan of a play- 
festival, which was to be celebrated at some beautiful 
place in the neighborhood, with the co-operation of the 
children and teachers of the neighboring districts. This 
plan had frequently been discussed between us, in con- 
nection with Froebel's ideas of the educational use of 
festivals for childhood and youth, and also for the mass 
of the people. 



<;.H iv'iMiNiMi.Nci:;; oi'' nan in: i,. 

'I'lic miMiM' iA |)()lilic.il lilx-ily, wliiili in our d.iy is 
Ix'comiii}; molt' .md moic luaikrd .ind rxlicme, is occa- 
sioiu'tl in p. Ill, ill l''i«>cltc'i's opinion, l»\' ihc raicncss of 
llic o|)|)oi liinil V wliK li V(tiitl» and (liildicn lind to act 
lift'ly ill a lawlul and orderly sociablrncss, l)i'twt'(.'n {\\v 
v\[\v\\u'H ol tlir inipost'd ifstraint of S(I»o«»ls and the 
IrrcsponMhic lic-cdoin onl'.idc ol ihcin. 'ilu- pu .'.(-nl dc< 
gR't* ol lihcily f^ianlfd to all i lasses recjuiit's a thorough 
rdiicatioM lor liltcrty that docs not yet exist in a eoire- 
.'.pondinj' dfjMce. Tin;, edmation onidil to hej'/in heJort^ 
tlie school yeais l>i'|;in, \\\ a wider so( ial inteicouise ol 
t liiMten, in which each nndi-r an estaltlished oidi r may 
act liccl\', as in tlu* ivindci^vii Icn. 

The naiiow circle ol tlu; lamily cannot InUil all tlu* 
conditions loi this end, hecanse t hildren smionndiMl hy 
love at home iaiel\ lind o( ( asion to leain to chci k and 
<leny themsclycs loi the sake ol otIuMS. In the soi iai 
lili* of the school, on the other hand, passiye oheclieiKe 
is rcipiiMte loi }Mvin|; to all an adc(|ii.ilc oi»p(»i liinil>' lor 
IVec'doin ol action. Abuse ol lieedoin [;i anted rarely 
t)ccnis under the regulated activity of schools lor youth, 
Ol in the haul uoik ol adnlls. I'Apei ieiic c sullic lently 
shows that excesses f;euerally occur in the hours of 
recieation. It is coarse and rcMi;;h enjoyments which 
lead to diis danjM'i. \ oiilh nuist l>c ediic atc-tl to noMer 
pleasures and enioyinenis, il licci institulions arc> not to 
he misused. Those who aie shut out lioin the pK'asurcs 
dciivrd lioin naliiic awA the ails cannot iMsily he le 
stiained lioin excessive' ludeness. 

(ieneial mcuality, accoidin^ to I'lochel. depends in 
jjjreat measme on ha\inj; this ideal side ol the human 
beiu!', awakcmsl aiul {;ialilu'd liom the ;'>7 r A-j^v///////j,' (j/ 



KI'.MI Nl.'.CI'.NCI'.S Ol'' I'KOI Itl'l,. 






///?', ill order lo iiHoKl ;i coimlcrpoisc (o scnsiiiil desires, 
;m(i lo picvenl as f.ir as possible (lie awakening; olllu; 
jowei appetites. The (l(\(li >| iineiil ol llie sense of 
heaiily, while the relle< live powers arc; still sltiinhei iiij.; in 
the child's soni, oilers llie hesl nu'ans lor this. 'I'heie 
loie the eyes ol ihr < hiM ,iie to he opened in its eailic st 
\(Mis to loiins, colors, et»., and the ear to iinisic, and 
the weak, ( hildish poweis are lo he pK paled ;iM(l used 
in ihe loi inalioii nl heanlilnl ohjeCls. 

I'loehel looks upon this loinialion of heanlilnl ohjeets 
a'. Ihe hest means ol inakin|^' Ihe son! snsceplihie to liu* 
ideal on every side, and the ( nllivation ol Ihe ( leilive 
poweis hi; (Consider, one ol ihe most iinpoilant means 
loi overeominu, ( (mi '.em-'.', and immorality. 

The ne( (".•.it\' ol ele\aliii;; one's sell ahovc e\<*i\'day 
dilfK nities and ol pkn in:; one's sell in ideal ( in nm- 
'.laiH I'S, even il only hy dieainiii;'^, oi at limes j'.ivin}; 
one's self n|> nneoiislrainedly to ( hildhke, innoi ent amii.e 
meiil, is ;;iililied hy leslivals, whi( h at the same lime 
seiA'e lo ^'.ive expies.ion lo s|)e( iai '.eiilimeiils, sn( h as 
);ialitnde, admiialion ol <Meal and f^ood deeds, < oiii 
memorations ol Ihe services of dislin|Miished piliiot:: 
.\\\i\ piihJK henela( loi s, [^I'eat minds and mveiitois, el( . 

I'lay, or rather art in the j^armenl ol jilay, < onstilnles 
the ( hii'f inj^rcdient of such leslivilies, if liiey are to lisc 
aho\f a ineiely sensnons <'n|oviiieiil. In oidei lo en- 
nohle and ideali/e (hildien':. le'.liva!., the (hildien's 
hixlies and minds mii'.t he. I he jnepaied loi enjoy- 

llieill. 

Il IS a jj;ieat educational error (vvhi( h I'loehel wishes 
lo comhat) to deprive (hildhood and y<»nili ol its le;dli' 
mat(t joys, l(ti nalnie he. pl.inled the \iiri\ .md < i.ivin;; 



lOO REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

for them in their hearts. As bodily development is 
interrupted and even injured when the lawful wants of 
nature are not satisfied, the soul and its natural develop- 
ment are cramped if the craving for joy is not met. 

The youth who grow up in too great restraint and pri- 
vation show the justice of this view by their excessive 
pleasure- seeking as soon as freedom and opportunity are 
given to them. On the other hand, it is rare that youth 
who have grown up in innocent, happy childhood rush 
into any excess of pleasures. 

Natural gratification, when permitted, prevents ex- 
cesses, while one extreme always calls forth the opposite. 
Moderation in everything, indeed, is the first educational 
rule, and a right limitation of the pleasures of youth 
should not be wanting. 

Froebel found the right way when he made the correct 
estimate of those childish joys which ennoble the mind, 
satisfy the desire for the beautiful and the ideal, and 
above all things prevent every merely idle pleasure by 
giving that activity to the powers which precludes de- 
structive desires. 

Enjoyment, as a means of unity for men, resembles 
in its highest and finest expression true religion, which 
binds together in the worship of God all ages, all the 
different social ranks, and all the different grades of 
culture. Enjoyment delivers from all dissension, all 
enmity, and all separation during the season of the 
enjoyment. 

In the drawing of men's souls together sentiment is 
one and the same for one and the same end. Froebel 
saw the beginning of the final and highest destiny of 
mankind upon earth, which he designated by the expres- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. lOI 

sion " unity of life," and which with him had a manifold 
significance, according to its various relations and the 
various steps of its realization. 

In reference to individuals, this "unity of life" or har- 
mony brings about as a last consequence that resolution 
of discords between the sensual and spiritual nature which 
in reality is only thifikable for moments. Taken abso- 
lutely, it would be that lifting out of sin that is the last 
and highest destiny of man, and the final goal of all edu- 
cation as of all religion. 

In nature, or the material world, Froebel saw an image 
of this " unity of life " in every organism, so far as its 
conditions require that all parts serve the end of the 
whole as a connected unity. The circle, with its radii 
running from the centre to the circumference, was to him 
a symbol of this idea ; for a circle is the representation 
of the general law, " the connection of opposites," since 
the periphery and centre stand in contrast to each other, 
and are connected by the radii ; this law was with him 
the indispensable condition of all harmony, and therefore 
of all "unity of life." 

The organic life in nature, as the first beginning of the 
harmony which rules in the universe, and imitating this 
last as mkf'ocosm (world in miniature), offers the first 
rudiments of " unity of life " in human society, whose 
organization has to represent that spiritually which na- 
ture presents materially. 

The recognition of the analogy between spirit and 
phenomena, and the deeper understanding of the above- 
mentioned law, which governs equally in both, must lead 
to the view that national organization and civic arrange- 
ments also require for the stability of the whole the con- 



I02 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

currence of the parts, and this view impels individuals to 
the conscientious and voluntary fulfilment of their civic 
duties and the maintenance of national order, and thus 
the conditions would be fulfilled for reaching national 
unity. 

Therefore nationalities must recognize themselves also 
as individual organisms in the great whole of humanity, 
which create " unity of life " for themselves by the con- 
scious community of their parts, and lead the way through 
their association with each other to the condition of the 
highest community, the unity of all nations upon the earth. 

Through the fulfilment of these conditions, humanity is 
made into a conscious or spiritual whole, and thereby is 
the " unity of life " established fully and completely in 
the world. This theory of Froebel's agrees in its general 
features, in many respects, with those of some other phi- 
losophers, especially with Krause's. Not less is it in 
unison with the Christian theory and its idea of redemp- 
tion, taken in its deepest meaning. 

To the realism of our time this would be nothing more 
than a useless hypothesis, if it did not lead in its conse- 
quences to a practical educational result. The immediate 
practical application which Froebel makes possible stands 
as it were in contrast, if not in opposition, to those philo- 
sophical systems, and is of the greatest importance. 

Our time will hear nothing of mere speculations which 
have no practical results for the bettering of human so- 
ciety, as has been the case for centuries. Science, to-day, 
moves in the service of practical life, without, however, on 
that account giving up its own aim. Froebel's method 
of education is the practical result of a philosophical 
theory by wliich, for the first time, a complete embodi- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I03 

ment of abstract ideas, and their immediate realization 
in deeds, is brought forth ; and thus this practical phi- 
losophy of Froebel's is separated completely and fully 
from all other philosophical systems. 

In the association movements which prevail at present 
in all classes, Froebel saw a sign of the idea of that unity 
which governs the times, and whose ultimate goal he 
designates as the "unity of life." This unity, at first 
making itself felt for outward and material aims, was to 
him the precursor of the coming spiritual unity which 
hovered before him as his highest ideal, and whose final 
aim is a universal sense of religion, or divine unity. 

For the realization of the pure humanity in it, the full 
and complete development of every individuality is needed. 
The more independently human nature shows itself as 
peculiarity in individuals, the more unfettered and freely 
they can act, physically and intellectually, the more 
capable they become of union into a whole and of vol- 
untary selfrenunciation to its law. The larger wholes 
and communities can in their turn only have vitality when 
they proceed from the narrowest circle, the bosom of the 
family, which is the earliest community of life. Only the 
most moral and the most holy family life can lead the 
wider circles of life to conscious community, and bring 
them near to the highest ideal of a perfected humanity. 

But a truly noble family life springs out of the first and 
most original union of two mortals, — marriage. Accord- 
ing to Froebel, the counterparts, man and woman, united, 
form " the most sublime and divine of all earthly objects, 
exalting man to the likeness of God. It is the funda- 
mental condition, the highest law for the continuance of 
mankind, and therefore for the progressive existence of 



I04 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the divine in humanity." The eternal law of connection 
is love divine, all-penetrating love, which streams through 
the world out of its source in God like a magnetic power, 
from the most insignificant organism up to the highest 
spirits that have conquered the human and risen up to 
likeness with God. 

This theory of love is to serve as the highest goal 
and pole-star of human education, and must be attended 
to in the germ of humanit}^, the child, and truly in his 
very first impulses. The conquest of self-seeking ego- 
ism is the most important task of education, for selfish- 
ness isolates the individual from all communion and kills 
the life-giving principle of love. Therefore the first ob- 
ject of education is to teach to love, to break up the 
egoism of the individual, and to lead him from the first 
stage of communion in the family through all the follow- 
ing stages of social life to the love of humanity, or to the 
highest self-conquest through which man rises to divine 
unity. 

This is the same thing that Christianity designates as 
the " following of Christ," and expresses in the words, 
" Love one another " ; " He who loves not his brother 
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has 
not seen ? " etc. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CHILD-FESTIVAL AT ALTENSTEIN. 

IN SO far as Froebel holds fast to the connection of the 
greatest with the least, and wishes to have it consid- 
ered in education, this theory finds its application to 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I05 

child's play, which mirrors human nature in its univer- 
sality, and shows the germ of human culture in its condi- 
tion of unconsciousness. Therefore it is of the greatest 
importance that the understanding of the grown-up should 
come to the help of the dark striving of the young child, 
in order to point out to the blind impulses that are 
endeavoring to express themselves the right way of 
reaching their aim, and also to bring out the right mean- 
ing of the symbolism expressed in the childish utterance, 
in order to give direction to the later conscious life in the 
most suitable form. 

The undeveloped mind needs sensuous perceptions, 
the visible signs, in order to arrive at an understanding 
of truth. As the savage needs his fetish, as the people 
of antiquity in a higher stage of culture personified their 
ideas in the form of their gods and in various allegories, 
as even the Christian church cannot make itself under- 
stood without symbols, without the cross and the host, so 
the deepest need of childhood is to make the intellectual 
its own through symbols or sensuous forms. 

Therefore symbolic representations are in the first 
place necessary for this, representations which the chil- 
dren enact in their own persons, that is, plays, in which 
a company of children are the representatives of an idea 
lying at the foundation, and whose meaning they bring 
out in their action. 

Froebel's movement-plays have this aim, for they are 
in a certain sense dramas^ and make the ideas of the 
children objective by means of natural and human action. 
The child's soul unconsciously seeks for the meaning of 
the phenomena of life around it, but needs guidance to 
be able to find it truly ; and this understanding cannot 



I06 REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 

be gained merely by words, but only by actions con- 
nected with words, and above all by their oivn action. 

The religious exhibitions that prevailed in Greece, in 
the form of games like the Olympian, etc., satisfied this 
want for that people, to whom religious ideas were there- 
by brought into view. The theory of the world that 
prevailed at the time was chiefly made intelligible by 
dramatic action, in the form of games. In the flowering- 
time of the Greeks, the harmony between the intellectual 
and the sensuous world is expressed as with no other 
people, and is therefore the right representative of the 
ideal season of youth in humanity. The formation of the 
beautiful was the deepest need of that people cultivated 
in all their senses, and with all their senses alive, there- 
fore it shows more than any other the needs of youth 
still living in the world of the senses. The intellectual 
or higher contents of life, the ideas of the true and the 
beautiful, must be symbolized if they are to be under- 
stood and are to drive out the vulgarity of lower sensual 
pleasures. 

The capacity for belief, or sense of truth, is killed out 
in the childish heart when the truth is presented to it 
only in the form of abstract language, and offered un- 
clothed. More than one aspect of history teaches this, 
and yet people persist in it and offer religion and philos- 
ophy to youth distincdy as doctrine. Froebel, on the 
contrary, wishes to awaken original conviction and original 
insight by religious acts and by philosophical knowledge 
of concrete things, and thereby to prepare for religious 
doctrine and for philosophic instruction. Rousseau 
shows his concurrence with this plan of procedure in 
these words : " Every truth given too early by words 
plants the seeds of vice in the childish soul." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I07 

The symbolic plays of the kindergarten will cultivate 
youth to repeat the symbolic plays of the Greeks. But 
of course they are not to mirror the views of the Grecian 
world, but of our own time, and thereby to prepare for 
the nearest future. And out of the newly formed chil- 
dren's festivals shall grow the newly formed people's 
festivals. 

The play-exercises which succeed those of the kinder- 
garten must have their practical results, that is, to teach 
the government of life in some form and to assist culti- 
vation, intellectually as well as materially. The chief 
domains of life must be taken into consideration, so that 
the first acquaintance with the world may connect the 
ideal side with the living reality. Every child learns 
more indirectly than directly, that is, rather by his own 
experience than by instruction. The organized play- 
ground, the school-garden, the workshops, artistic exer- 
cises of every kind, and excursions into the country, 
offer means for this in connection with the literary 
school. Most of these opportunities are already in ex- 
istence. Singly, none would avail. There must be an 
organizing idea in order to connect them into one whole. 

The proposed play-festival could not be complete with- 
out Middendorff, so he was obliged to come to it. He 
arrived at Marienthal towards evening on the 2d of 
August. Wearied with the journey, the last portion of 
which he had taken on foot, heated and dusty, but with 
a countenance beaming with joy, he gayly entered Froe- 
bel's house. I had been making with him some prepa- 
rations for the festival. Froebel had already arranged 
everything he could ; had had communications with the 



Io8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

teachers of surrounding districts, had chosen the play- 
ground in the park that environs the castle of Al ten- 
stein, had drawn up the plan of the games, and had also 
practised many of the songs and plays with the scholars 
of his institution, and the children of the Liebenstein 
kindergarten. 

It was arranged with Middendorff on that same evening 
that the next day the two friends should together deter- 
mine the details of the festival on the spot They were 
to send for the teachers of the different villages and their 
troops of children, that they might come to their ap- 
pointed places and at the time designated. I was de- 
puted to invite the Duke's family, then at the castle of 
Altenstein, to the festival, for which they had already 
given kindly permission. The invitation was not only 
cordially accepted, but the Duchess promised to have the 
children provided with milk and rolls. 

On the day before the festival, which was arranged for 
the 4th of August, Froebel and Middendorff scarcely 
had a moment in which to sit down, so eager were they 
in making their preparations. The joy of their souls was 
visible in their faces, like that of mothers the day before 
Christmas. To make children happy blesses all human 
hearts. 

With the penetrating glance of the weather-wise, Froe- 
bel contemplated the evening sky, to see whether the 
next day would be favorable for the festival. All signs 
gave the best promise, and this promise was fulfilled, for 
a warm summer day, not too hot, shone in the blue 
sky, on the beautiful festival of love, the first child's 
festival of this land. 

On the 4th of August, at two o'clock in the after- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I09 

noon, more than three hundred children in five different 
columns, four abreast, came from the little city of Sal- 
zung and the surrounding villages, Liebenstein, Mar- 
rienthal, Schweina, and Steinbach. The teachers and 
kindergartners at their side, decked with garlands, came 
singing into the great square, the Altenstein plateau, 
which had been chosen for the playground. At the 
entrance, upheld by oak-wreaths, was placed a large 
crown of flowers, in the midst of which were to be read 
the words of Schiller : — 

" Deep meaning often lies in childish play," 

The troops of children with their teachers from the vari- 
ous districts, distinguished by different-colored bows of 
ribbon, had assembled in the village of Schweina that 
lies below Altenstein, in the place designated for them. 
Those coming from the more distant Salzung were brought 
in wagons decked with green festoons, in order to go up 
from here together to the playground, where they were 
received by Froebel and Middendorff. 

These "columns, coming from various directions, the 
variety of ages, including adults and old people, the 
difference of rank and degrees of culture to which the 
children belonged (especially marked by the children of 
the guests at Liebenstein), all this manifoldness had its 
special significance for Froebel. It was necessary, in 
order to represent his idea of the " unity of life." Play 
and its joys were to unite the different spheres of life, 
the inhabitants of different regions, and various callings 
and grades of culture, in a common elevation, through 
ennobled enjoyment in play, just as public worship unites 
all individuals in religious devotion. 



110 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

An order went out immediately for arranging the chil- 
dren in eight different circles, which surrounded the 
centre of the great square. Each of the circles was led 
by its teacher or one of the kindergartners belonging to 
Froebel's school. 

The spectators were arranged outside of the square, in 
the shadow of the surrounding woods. There was a 
beautiful intermingling of the people of the surrounding 
villages, in their different peasant costumes ; most o*f 
them were the parents and brothers and sisters of the 
children, the inhabitants of the city of Salzung, and the 
bathing guests of Liebenstein, In most of the faces 
beamed that love which is to be seen in the countenance 
of the roughest man, when his highest feeling — paternal 
love — is stirred; and this love shone especially in the 
eyes of the old white-haired peasants who accompanied 
their grandchildren. The love of grandparents seems 
specially lively in country people. Perhaps their narrow 
lives and the rest from heavy work, which old age in- 
sures, lead them to concentrate all their feelings upon 
the children of their families, whom old age easily under- 
stands. 

When the three hundred clear children's voices sounded 
in the opening song, 

" See us here united," 

it was accompanied by a kind of marching play, consisting 
of various evolutions of the different circles. Then the 
eyes of all sparkled with joy, and none turned their gaze 
from the players, who, like all simple children, entered into 
the play with unmistakable joy and hilarity, indeed, with 
earnestness and devotion. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. Ill 

To children their play is life, activity, work, and enjoy- 
ment at the same time, therefore they plunge into it with 
all earnestness, at least till the ecstasy of play carries them 
away and impels the livelier temperaments even to ex- 
travagance. This extravagance seldom appears in the 
large assembly of grown-up players, and even the joy of 
the wildest child restrains itself within certain limits, sug- 
gested by the feeling of fitness. 

This was the case here. All followed the voices of the 
leaders of the play, who in their turn obeyed the signs 
of Froebel and Middendorfif. 

Every one of the plays that succeeded the opening 
song was indicated in an intelligent manner to the chil- 
dren less by the words of the song than by the action 
itself. The predominant idea was always an interchange 
of the action of individuals with the action of the whole 
of the circle (making a unit), to which all belonged. 
Soon one of the company was chosen to do something 
in the midst of the inner circle, as, for instance, to make 
some one systematic motion at some individual's sugges- 
tion, which all the rest imitated, or some one determined 
and directed what the rest should do. 

For instance, the different circles formed garlands, 
each one of which represented a different flower, cele- 
brated in the song as the emblem of a different virtue. 
At the close they all united in a single circle, represent- 
ing the German oak-wreath, which, as a symbol of Ger- 
man nationality, united them in one whole. 

In the game of the pigeon-house, the flying out of the 
birds into the distance and their return were represented, 
and the doves that had flown out were required, on their 
return, to tell the rest what they had seen or heard. 



112 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

SONG. 

We open the pigeon-house again 

And set all the happy flatterers free ; 

They fly o'er field and grassy plain, 

Delighted with joyous liberty. 

And when they return from their merry flight, 

We shut up the house and bid them good night. 

And now you are safe and happy here, 

Tell us what you have seen, little pigeon dear. 

The bird tells his story, and then says, " Coo, coo, 

I 'm so glad, dear mother, to get home to you." 

Then the children represented hedges with green twigs, 
which they held in their hands, under which the youngest 
children, as little birds, slipped through, singing " Little 
Bird in the Wood." 

Similar plays, leading the children's thoughts into na- 
ture and the life of animals, are very numerous in the 
kindergarten. 

The Salzungen children, who were, generally speaking, 
larger than the other children, practised gymnastics inter- 
mixed with many well-known plays of the children of the 
people, whose text was changed to suit the kindergarten. 
Generally, the peculiar kindergarten plays were the most 
pleasing, as being most suitable to children. 

The meaning or point lying at the foundation of each 
play, which comes out in some jocose way in the popular 
plays, is unintelligible to the young child, or at least un- 
suitable. The present condition of culture requires these 
plays to be reformed to suit the times. Froebel's cloth- 
ing of his ideas of play, which are to awaken determinate 
ideas in the child's soul, is not always happily chosen, 
but it generally hits the right vein in the sense of the 
child, crystallizing itself around what springs from the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. II3 

childish impulse of the moment, or from the people's wit, 
which is the original source of all games. 

Froebel has succeeded with true genius in interpreting 
and giving expression to the sensuous part of the child's 
nature, even if the verses which express it are often very- 
defective, and here and there are, on reflection, to be 
condemned. 

And the music of the songs, which were the popular 
melodies, was not always the best. Froebel took what 
was at hand, for he was neither a musician nor a poet, 
and he only aimed at embodying his intellectual ideas. 
These faults, with other imperfections incident to every 
work, are easily to be improved upon. But because peo- 
ple have as yet penetrated so little into the deep grounds 
of Froebel's educational system, criticism, so far as it 
exists on this subject, speaks of these external things 
alone, the poor verses and songs, the versified reflections, 
etc., not separating what is designed for the children 
from what is addressed to the mother, as for example the 
mottoes to the " Mother and Cosset Songs." Such su- 
perficial and nonsensical judgments have, however, done 
injury by giving occasion for the so-called advocates who 
take up the method for their own personal ends, to make 
use of them in order to give themselves the appearance of 
impartial judgment in their own pitiful, bungling work, in 
which they often make use of Froebel's thoughts as their 
own, while they are criticising and blaming him. These 
superficial judges are not capable of entering into the 
child's nature, to which their standard of literary worth 
does not apply. The lisping babe on the mother's breast, 
and the little child of five years old, do not understand 
Goethe and Schiller. But surely the little child can under- 



114 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Stand when it is allowed to look at the animals in the 
yard, and to sing Froebel's little song about their lan- 
guage : — 

" The doves fly, and the little colts jump, 
The little geese gabble, and ' Quack ' says the duck ! 
The little bees hum, and moolly cow moos ; 
The little calf frisks, and the peacock struts, 
The little lamb baas, and the old sheep bleats." 

These indeed are neither beautiful thoughts nor beau- 
tiful verses, but the right language for the young child, 
whose attention we wish to call to the various motions 
and sounds of the beasts, putting them into the measured 
language which attracts at this age and awakens the 
sense of rhythm. What can be more suitable to the 
child's understanding than the following song ? 

" White snow comes down in gentle flakes ; 
The field is covered, the seeds are safe ; 
All snug the green grass lies there too ; 
By and by it will peep out at me and you ; 
When the snow is gone, up jumps the seed, 
Its sleep is over, — grass covers the mead ; 
The stalk grows high, the corn waves in the air ; — 
So my darling will grow all lovely and fair. 

" In the close hedge mother bird makes her home ; 
In the pretty nest two eggs will come ; 
When the little birdies peep from the shell. 
The mother spreads her wings to keep them well ; 
Soon they grow strong to fly with mamma. 
And listen to songs from dear, kind pajDa." 

The circle of children make the pantomime of this 
with their arms and fingers : first the falling snow, then 
the snowy cover spreading wide ; afterward the seed 
sprouting up, the rising of the cornstalk and the bowing 
of the full ears, for which the children bow their heads. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. II5 

Joyfully the little ones listen to the homely songs that 
accompany the finger-plays, the gymnastic exercises of 
the child's hands. 

Then the mother shows the child a bird's-nest by inter- 
lacing his little hands, and sings, — 

" On the tender green bough 
Mother bird builds her nest, 
And drops within it two eggs. 

" When the young ones are bom 
She spreads out her wings 
To keep them all snug and warm. 

" By and by the birdies call, 
* Mother dear, peep, peep, 
And now will you teach us to sing ? ' 

** Then they sing on the tree 
While the sun shines warm, 
And Willy shall listen with me ! " 

Such childish songs as these accompanying the child's 
observation of nature are quite in their place. To the un- 
comprehending critic we must quote Jean Paul's words : 
" Stand far away from the tender flower of childhood, 
and brush not off the flower-dust with your rough fist." 

The best proof that most of Froebel's plays are suited 
to the childish mind is the never-failing joy of the chil- 
dren, great and small, in playing them again and again. 
Even grown-up young girls, whether kindergartners or 
not, indeed, many still older people who retain their sus- 
ceptibility to the pleasures of childhood, practise them 
with children or among themselves with great delight. 
Every institution for the culture of kindergartners affords 
proof of this. 

Whoever could contemplate this great troop of children 



Il6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

at the Altenstein festival without the deepest emotion, 
could have his feelings stirred by nothing purely human. 
Even the country people who had grown gray with rough 
work expressed deep sympathy, with tears of happy 
emotion. 

*' That is a sight for the heart ! " said one. " How 
beautifully playful the children are ! " 

"Yes, Mr. Froebel understands how to exercise chil- 
dren ; no doubt of that ! " said another. 

" This is delightful ! " said others. 

A stout, robust peasant who had accompanied his 
grandchild, said, " See one of those sacramental child- 
people who knows how to make all that so beautiful ! " 

A stiff military captain said : " If all children had gym- 
nastic plays of this kind, the drilling of recruits would be 
a real pleasure ! " 

A lady from among the Liebenstein guests said to 
Froebel, with tears in her eyes, " I never saw anything 
that struck me like this child's play. It seems as if I 
were in a church ; it sounds so devotional." 

" Yes," replied Froebel, " that is the uniting power of 
play which blesses and exalts children, and even grown- 
up people. Real human joy is only a divine worship, for 
it is ordered by God." 

There was a pause for rest, and the children spread 
themselves on the turf-covered banks of the grove in 
order to partake of the refreshments provided for them. 
The grown-up people took part in this, and enjoyed it 
hardly less than the children. When this pause for rest 
•was over, and they were making arrangements for new 
plays, the family of the Duke came to look on. I called 
Froebel and Middendorff to receive them, and they bolh 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. II7 

approached, glowing with heat, and their faces beaming 
with happiness. 

The Duchess said, " What a beautiful sight is this 
troop of happy children ! But you work too hard in 
guiding the plays. Won't you take seats with us?" 
pointing to the places prepared for the princes. 

Froebel answered, almost w ith irritation, " No, your 
Highness, that will not do ; I must go back to the chil- 
dren ; I am never wearied ; playing animates me and 
makes me young again." 

" It is not so easy at your years," said the Duke. 

" Froebel has discovered the secret of remaining for- 
ever young," said Middendorff. " Among children one 
keeps fresh, and does not grow old." 

And both these youthful old men returned to the circle 
of the playing children, of which they had not lost the 
least motion, as the^ sharp glance of both had been di- 
rected over the whole. 

The young nine-year-old princess looked upon the play- 
ing with the liveliest interest, and, as it appeared to me, 
with longing eyes, as if she would gladly have taken part 
in it. This little one was not wholly unacquainted with 
Froebel's occupations, for she had been taught some of 
them, especially the weaving, by Fraulein Levin. 

The children of the great in this world must, early in 
life, learn to do without that which makes children most 
happ}', — association with companions of their own age, 
and the cordial intimacies of childhood. Rarely can they 
take part in these. The unrestrained freedom of chil- 
dren standing on the lower steps of the social ladder is 
always wanting to them. The advantages which they 
usually have in their education hardly outweigh this dis- 



Il8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

advantage connected with it. In the conventional world 
the full happiness of childhood is scarcely ever enjoyed. 

After the playing was ended, and the princely family 
had conversed with amiable courtesy with many of the 
company, they left the playground. 

The troop of children now rested again to get strength 
for returning home, which some of the youngest had to do 
mostly in the arms of their parents. When the columns 
were arranged anew, they were first led before the ducal 
castle, in order to sing a song of thanks for the favors 
they had received, and the place granted for the festival. 
They then proceeded to a spot under some beautiful old 
lindens, below Altenstein, from whence the road parted 
to the different districts. The garlanded wagons of the 
Salzungers were waiting here to take home the young 
guests. 

But the children were again obliged to rest before pro- 
ceeding on their way, and Middendorff used these mo- 
ments to speak a few words of consecration before parting. 
He stepped upon a stone table that stood under the lin- 
dens, in order to gain a hearing, and then out of his full 
heart, with the inward earnestness peculiar to himself, 
spoke to the children and their parents. After he had 
reminded the children (the older of whom could fully 
understand his words) that they were to thank their par- 
ents for the day of pleasure, and their Father in heaven 
for his goodness, and must deserve a repetition of it by 
their future industry in school and by obedience and love 
at home, he cried out to the parents Froebel's motto, 
' Come, let us live with our children, that all things may 
be better here on earth," and explained to them its 
meaning. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. II9 

Among other things, he said : " The time is now come 
in which the human race, according to God's decree, is 
to rise to a higher stage of Hfe. At such a time there is 
already a great movement in all minds, and also in outer 
life, as is the case at present, when everything evil which 
has been concealed comes into view, and hinders the 
good and the progress which should come. Hence it is 
now fitting that every one should help to conquer the 
evil and make a free path for the good. The first thing 
to be done is to make better men by a good educadon 
of the children. Therefore Froebel calls upon his con- 
temporaries to live with the children in order through 
them to solve the great problems of the time for the 
future. 

" Froebel has regained the lost paradise in his kinder- 
gartens, in which little children are guarded as much as 
possible from sin, and are trained to become virtuous 
men and women by the harmonious development of their 
powers and disposiuons. Childish innocence belongs 
only to the first years of life. Hence they are to be 
protected and guarded at the beginning, and that is the 
task of the mother ; but all mothers and maidens should 
help to build up and take care of the kindergarten, in 
order that pure human life may prosper. 

" The child-festival of to-day has given one aspect of 
the paradise of childhood. Let all hold it fast in remem- 
brance, and follow the call of the time, which is God's 
call, and be, as Froebel says, true guardians and garden- 
ers of children." 

The assembly had listened to Middendorfif's words in 
profound stillness, interrupted only here and there by 
the low sobbing of some of the mothers. When he had 



I20 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

ended, the whole company pressed up to him and to 
Froebel, to take their hands and express their warm 
thanks. All the hands were grasped, and nothing was 
heard but concurrence and good wishes. 

An old woman of one of the villages said, " How 
beautifully Herr Middendorff speaks. It seems as if our 
Saviour himself was speaking." 

" How happy I am to have been at this festival ! " 
said one of the Liebenstein guests from a great distance. 

" I only wish we could have such among us," said 
another. 

" God's blessing rests upon such a day," said an old 
peasant, and, deeply moved, pressed Froebel's hand, 
who stood with glorified features looking at the children 
himself, — " the new buds on the tree of humanity," as 
he called them, whose blooming he felt he had furthered 
by the day's festival, the exemplar of a custom to be 
universal. 

We now broke up, while all repeated once more the 
children's closing songs : " Friends, let us part," etc., and 
" Farewell, to meet again." 

The description Froebel wrote of the festival ends in 
these words : " Yes, it was a festival of the union of 
nature, man, and God, and God's blessing rests on such 
a day, as the old peasant expressed it. How easily 
might such child and youth festivals be exalted to a 
universal people's festival ! Should we not do every- 
thing to call such festivals into life, that so we may at 
last reach what the hearts of all desire, an all-sided 
'unity of life?"'=* 

* The description is printed in the third volume of Froebel's work, 
" Pedagogics of the Kindergarten." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 121 

The troops of children had gone forth ; on ever}^ side 
sounded the clear childish voices, repeating the last 
strophes of the parting song. The sun was going down, 
a crystal-clear, glorious sunset, as Froebel said when the 
grown-up of the Marienthal circle broke up to go home. 
All were rejoicing in the soft moonlight of the summer 
evening, which was exceptionally beautiful in our cli- 
mate. In Froebel's and Middendorff's faces was a high, 
holy content, as they now walked silently away, inwardly 
happy in having brought a long-cherished thought into 
fulfilment in such a beautiful manner. 

Froebel said, at last : " O, other child-festivals will 
follow ours ! Since one has been realized, why may 
they not be nationalized, for they have a true and beau- 
tiful meaning ? People's festivals for a higher, nobler 
humanity will follow, and contribute their part to the 
final attainment of the complete ' unity of life.' " 

" It has often occurred to me during our festival to- 
day," I said, " what is expressed by Goethe in his 
* School Regions ' {Pedagogischen Provinzeti) in the 
Wojiderjahre^ which coincides in many ways with your 
views, particularly the symbolic form which is there 
given." 

" Yes, and to think," answered Froebel, " that I have 
never yet read Goethe's Wanderjahre. My intention to 
do so was always baffled, so I only know the Lehrjahre 
and its sequel from hearsay." 

" O, then we must immediately take the Wafiderjahre 
in hand ! " I exclaimed. " I will bring it to you, and also 
a book upon Egyptian antiquities, in which I have lately 
found some passages proving the truth of your educa- 
tional views." 



122 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

We separated here, and took leave of Middendorff, 
who unfortunately could not remain away from Keilhau 
more than a few days, but he promised to make another 
visit in the autumn. 

" It was beautiful ! " were his last spoken words. 

When I went, on the afternoon of the next day, to 
see Froebel, in order to read to him Goethe's " School 
Regions," he was already busy with his description of 
the festival. But he gave me a willing hearing, and was 
truly in transport at Goethe's educational views and 
their expression in the Wanderjahre. He often inter- 
rupted me with such childlike exclamations as : " How 
well Goethe understands the nature of man in child- 
hood ! " '* He has also found that the connection of 
human history must be held fast if a new development 
is to be attained. We must look upon our children as 
a product of the past if we would lead them into the 
future ! " " Childhood can only be led through symbols 
to the understanding of truth and the understanding of 
itself. It needs symbolic action." " Gestures have the 
greatest significance for childhood." 

Goethe also recognized this when he spoke of the 
manner of greeting of children of different ages in the 
"School Regions." 

Goethe, truly, with his seer's glance into the future 
human development, could not but concur in Froebel's 
view, which also embraced humanity in its past, present, 
and future. What does his expression in Faust (Second 
Part), " Everything is a parable," mean, but that every- 
thing is the symbol of an idea ? He maintained, like 
Froebel, that a symbol of the truth must go before the 
word, to aid the human mind in its development. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 23 

Froebel busied himself especially with the beginning 
of human culture, and with what the earliest childhood 
of man betokens, therefore everything particularly inter- 
ested him which had reference to it. I called his atten- 
tion to the fact stated in the above-mentioned volume 
upon Egypt, that in the beginning of the culture of that 
country the three graces, or goddesses of beauty, were 
represented by three cubes leaning upon each other, — 
by which he was made as happy as if he had discovered 
a treasure. 

" You see, now, how correct is my choice of the cube 
as the first regular form, for the child's inspection, next 
after the sphere. The Egyptians did not know that it 
was the first regular form of solid bodies in nature or 
crystallization. But the regular symmetrical forms of na- 
ture, because they are the fundamental forms (types) of all 
phenomena, are only to be found in nature. Man car- 
ries in his mind natural forms and their law as an inward 
testimony of his origin ; so far he is a child of nature. The 
ancients had this presentiment of the truth. We moderns 
shall come to a consciousness of it." 

" This peculiar fact in regard to the cube form, men- 
tioned in my writings, has been frequently repeated in 
the writings of others." 

I also quoted to Froebel out of Kreutzer's Symholik, 
that ''golden balls were given to the young Bacchus to 
play with, by his educator, and also that the young 
princes of Persia played with such, and alone had this 
privilege." This plunged Froebel into deep thought, and 
he said : " What a power of presentiment ! Yes, the 
presentiment of truth always goes before recognition 
of it. To show unity in the sphere is the greatest privi- 



124 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

lege, for God is unity, and the undeveloped man can 
behold unity only in a symbol." 

At such moments the seer in Froebel came forth. It 
was as if he looked far back into the past of humanity, 
and there sought the thread which from the beginning 
connects all times and leads to the farthest future, even 
to the goal. 



CHAPTER X. 

HERR VON WYDENBRUGK. 

FROEBEL had built hopes on the visit of Von Wy- 
denbrugk, the minister, who superintended educa- 
tional matters in Weimar, and believed that his support 
of the cause would insure its firm establishment in that 
part of Germany at least. To judge from the Hvely 
interest that Von Wydenbrugk, as well as the minister- 
president, Watzdorff, had expressed in my communica- 
tions concerning Froebel's educational idea (during my 
stay in Weimar the preceding winter of 1850) and in 
connection with the sympathy of the princely family, this 
expectation of their official support and assistance in 
the introduction of the cause was justified. Too much, 
however, is always expected from influential people, and 
in most cases more than they are in a condition to give 
with their best will ; for the thousand obstacles they 
have to conquer are not always perceived. The greatest 
of these obstacles generally come from subalterns through 
whose agency only can innovations be brought about. 
The power of a minister seldom reaches to carrying 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 12$ 

reforms immediately into operation, if their necessity or 
the beneficial effect of the means necessary for their 
accomplishment is undervalued by the subordinates, or 
perhaps not wished for by them on some other grounds. 
How little could even great minds, like Stein's and Har- 
denberg's, carry through in their own lifetime the reforms 
which they strove for ! Indeed, even rulers upon thrones 
cannot always do what they would. Joseph II. died 
of a broken heart because his great ideas were neither 
appreciated nor could be carried out. Contemporaries 
are never ripe for understanding the ideas of minds in 
advance of their time. Posterity only can understand 
and carry them out to their full extent. 

To these advanced ideas belongs Froebel's educational 
principle. We should have spared ourselves many a 
painful disappointment at the time, if we had always 
remembered this universal historical experience. But 
painful experiences are spared to none who strive for those 
improvements for which everything must be attempted 
that promises any good consequences. 

So we attempted, during the several days' stay of the 
minister Von Wydenbrugk in Liebenstein, to gain him 
over to our plans. He was my table neighbor at the 
Kurhaus, which gave me many opportunities of speaking 
with him on the subject. I saw at once that many objec- 
tions occurred to his mind in consequence of consulta- 
tions with two prominent schoolmen of the district, who 
had influence on account of their knowledge, but who 
had shown neither good-will to Froebel nor real ac- 
quaintance with his idea, and Froebel already looked 
upon them as opponents. Then came the well-known 
hesitation at every reform and innovation, which makes 
all good things so difficult of accomplishment. 



126 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Caution must be used at present in regard to the 
pursuit of novelties, and the fooHsh plans everywhere 
prevailing would lead to abuse. The idea of connecting 
practical work with the school has already proved to be 
unattainable ; the requisite improvement of the school 
has been gained through Pestalozzi's method, whose uni- 
versal adoption is first to be striven for. In Froebel's 
method so much is found that is obscure and impractica- 
ble that we must not lavish public money upon it before 
it has been tested by private investigations. Children 
and youth should not be given up to experiments whose 
success has not been proved," etc., — and other objec- 
tions not applicable in themselves to a definite thing, but 
true in general. 

The most useful and important reforms are often dis- 
missed and their advocates shoved aside, instead of being 
granted a thorough trial of the subject, which a practical 
experiment w^ould often justify. We owe to this reject- 
ing caution of Philistines that some reforms have been 
adopted too late to be of any use to the present genera- 
tion. Extreme necessity often first opens the eyes to 
means of help that have long been at hand, whose timely 
application would have averted great evils. 

This ever-recurring experience is fully applicable to 
Fioebel's educational method, which will only be uni- 
versally appreciated when the evil consequences of a 
popular education not in consonance with the wants of 
the time, and laden with crying faults, shall open the most 
purblind eyes. 

Herr Von Wydenbrugk had incontestably the most 
thorough interest and the best will for all the improve- 
ments which the time demands, especially for those which 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 27 

promised the right education for the people. He did 
not, hke many other dignitaries, look down superciliously 
upon Froebel's strivings, which embrace for the first time 
the care of the germs of human power and their correct 
nurture in early childhood. The great use of an early 
development of the working powers, in view of its eco- 
nomical as well as moral influence, was perfectly plain to 
him ; and, personally, he was quite ready to further the 
cause as far as possible, " when the right moment should 
come," as he often said. 

And truly at that time it seemed, on the side of the 
magistrates, that the right moment had not come, because 
among the adherents of the Froebel cause were found 
many who were compromised politically, and who inter- 
preted it in their own sense, giving their countenance to 
it precisely because it belonged to the novelties of the 
time, and laid great stress upon the free development of 
the human being. 

But Froebel's views on education for freedom were 
certainly very different from those of the youthful fanatics 
and agitators, who thought to teach freedom by the over- 
throw of national order. 

When I spoke of education for freedom^ Herr Von Wy- 
denbrugk warned me not to use that expression, for it 
w^ould always give rise to misapprehensions. " It is in- 
deed not clear to me," said he, " how far you think this 
mode of designation is correct yourself. " 

" Certainly," said I, " it is correct, inasmuch as men 
can be made capable of outward or political freedom 
only when they have been educated to the requisite de- 
gree of inward freedom. Only a correct education from 
the beginning can teach to individuals the necessary self- 



128 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

government and self-restraint, and the necessity of their 
submission to natural laws. All the teaching at universi- 
ties upon national rights and national law are inadequate 
to spread universally the right view that the state, as such, 
with its arrangements, is the necessary condition of the 
freedom of the whole, and therewith the freedom of in- 
dividuals. It is only for the most part a vanishing mi- 
nority which frequents the universities, and even of this 
minority only a part comes away with a correct view, as 
is sufficiently proved by many of the leaders of the pres- 
ent revolutionary movement, the majority of whom are 
scholarly men. 

" Besides this, mere knowledge, or rather knowledge 
gained only through literary instruction, without contem- 
poraneous personal experience, does not suffice to make 
men capable of the self-government and selfrestraint 
necessary for true freedom. Students who almost daily 
hear lectures upon national and natural law are not pre- 
vented thereby from occasionally committing the greatest 
misdemeanors, and from speaking with contempt of all 
law and order. Undoubtedly it would be timely to make 
arrangements through some schools for advanced culture 
to instruct the mass of the people in their civic duties 
and rights and the laws of the land. But that would not 
be sufficient to protect the freedom gained from abuse ; 
the early habits of life are the main things that later de- 
cide the issue. So long as the children of the masses 
remain without education, before and with the school, 
and are left to the lawlessness of street life, so long they 
cannot be ripe and fitted for free national institutions. 

"Let us only look upon the little vagabonds who have 
grown up in asylums, and see how hard it has been to 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 29 

win them to a well-ordered life. They had rather suffer 
hunger and thirst, and bear all the possible privations of 
their free robber life, than give themselves up to the con- 
straint and order of even those institutions which are 
conducted with love and gentleness ! In fact, the pub- 
lic notices of the asylums founded in New York for 
homeless children testify that, in spite of all the ameni- 
ties offered in these institutions, a considerable number 
of the children always prefer, even in rough weather, 
to find their usual sleeping-places in the open air, in 
sheds, on steps, under bridges, rather than be subjected 
to the domestic arrangements of the asylums designed 
for their good. So much for the power of habit and 
the desire for rude freedom, when the restraints of morals 
and of the habits of orderly life do not exercise their in- 
fluence early. The storm-si)irit breaks loose, or an uncon- 
strained and lawless life gets the upper hand when room 
and opportunity offer." 

" Even the best education cannot prevent that," said 
Herr Von Wydenbrugk. " Men always remain men, that 
is, imperfect beings." 

" But the progressive development of men under all 
circumstances," was my answer, " has to combat the evil 
of every time, and circumstances are always different 
according to the change of epoch. Should we not in our 
time, therefore, seek for the causes why children do not 
obey their parents any better, and why the great mass of 
the citizens will not obey the magistrates and their ordi- 
nances? You grant that general revolutionary move- 
ments have some historic ground to justify them, and that 
a great measure of general freedom must be granted at 
the present time ? " 



130 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Yes," interrupted the minister, " but it can only be 
granted when preservation of the state and its order are 
guaranteed." 

" Certainly," said I, " that is obvious ; the granting 
of the demand for a more extended political freedom, 
which is not to be put off, involves a condition at the 
same time of providing for its right use, and for a protec- 
tion from its abuse. In the emancipated slave, or the 
rough masses, the capacity for this is completely wanting. 
The very knowledge of the necessity of law is wanting 
to them. They will always transgress it whenever and 
wherever they have freedom. Therefore power must 
always be arrayed against power. 

" The obedience of individuals, in the interest of the 
whole human race, has been and will continue to be ne- 
cessary. In the lower stages of development, blind obe- 
dience to parents and superiors, like servile submission 
under national authority, was necessary to the existence 
of social order. The further historical development of 
men and circumstances has given more value to thejfer- 
sonality of individuals in reference to the whole, and 
therefore individual right has come into conflict with 
national right. 

"That blind obedience and servile subjection of earlier 
times have now become an impossibility, and will become 
more so the further the consciousness of personal right 
is cultivated and impressed upon the masses. Nothing 
is left, then, but to set free obedience in the place of 
blind obedience, and to render the rough masses, through 
cultivation, capable of seeing that only the self restraint 
of individuals and their voluntary subjection to law make 
greater freedom in society possible. That mode of edu- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 13! 

cation which can solve this problem may justly be called 
* education for freedom.' Only he who does not know 
the whole power and importance of the first impressions 
and earliest habits of life can laugh at Froebel for placing 
in the earliest childhood the foundation for the later life 
of the citizen, and for making the mind of the child 
receptive of legitimate order before wilfulness and law- 
lessness have become fixed conditions in it. 

"The Spartans took the nurslings from their mothers 
in order to educate them for a national end. It would 
have been better if they had taken care of the correct 
education of the mothers for their educational office. 
And if the Jesuits, in spite of their opposition to» an 
advanced culture, are yet always able to bring about the 
blindest subjection to the decrees of the church and its 
dominion, then education to free obedience, which is in 
harmony with the demands of the time, will also be 
possible." 

" Shall we not, then," said Herr von Wydenbrugk, 
laughing, " like the Spartans, according to the views of 
our great Fichte, withdraw all children from the family, 
to educate them in national institutions?" 

" That neither you nor any one else who is acquainted 
with Froebel's method can really believe, since the edu- 
cation of the female sex for its maternal duties is his first 
requisition. But can it hinder or disturb family educa- 
tion in any way, if, by means of kindergartens, a place of 
education is created which represents a miniaiitre state 
for children, in which the young citizen can learn to 
move freely, but with consideration for his little fellows ? 
That cannot be done, at least in the family ; it needs a 
larger social circle, for in the family the mother or the 



132 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

nurse is already accustomed to foster in the nursling 
wilfulness and the spirit of opposition. Family educa- 
tion, even under circumstances still so bad, must remain ; 
but a corrective and complement must be given to it, and 
this before the school. 

"This pressing want has been met for the children 
of the working and poorer classes in a certain way by 
asylums. If it were not for their salutary influence, the 
present savagery would doubtless be greater than it is. 
How many children, who receive only demoralizing in- 
fluences in their homes, and are almost constrained to 
lawlessness and obstinacy, have had the only moral 
nourishment of their whole lives in these institutions! 
This is acknowledged, yet the old method of exacting 
passive obedience still prevails in them. Many condi- 
tions wanting in them must be fulfilled, in order to edu- 
cate the right citizens of the future. 

"The people's kindergartens, or the asylums that have 
been reformed in conformity to the times, fulfil these 
conditions. 

" Besides the greater freedom of movement of the 
pupils in what one may call, from its analogy to the state, 
an orderly, lawful community of life, something is added 
which constitutes the chief lever for order and the chief 
means against all misuse of freedom. This is the use 
of powers adapted to the age of children. All unused 
power seeks some outlet. If it is restrained, it explodes. 
This is also tlie case with human powers. What are 
revolutions but the explosions of the unregulated, unused 
powers of men, whose way to make them manifest in 
a lawful and appropriate manner has been effectively 
blocked ? This is the case, more or less, even with noble 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 33 

men when they oppose existing national evils for the ideal 
of better conditions. 

" No one, neither the adult nor the child, finds well- 
being and content without the use, that is to say without 
the development, of his powers. 

"If this just demand is not fulfilled, the lower or ani- 
mal side of the human being seeks its welfare in the 
gratification of its coarse impulses. 

" There i^ no need of any constraint or any command 
for that activity which is in harmony with the being of 
man in general, and at the same time with his individual 
disposition, and it will act freely and with love, and not 
overstep the measure of the powers at different ages. 

"This free activity is one of the chief conditions of an 
education for freedom, but it is only possible when the 
law of free creativeness is known and applied ; for that a 
free creativeness only can be a lawful one, we are taught 
by the smallest blade of grass, whose development takes 
place only according to immutable laws. 

" In so far as Froebel has learned from nature (or from 
the Creator) the law of creation, he can apply it to the 
productions of human, and therefore of childish, powers, 
and make really free creation possible to them. 

" This sounds mysterious and mystical. It is a riddle 
before we see how the egg is made to stand on its end. 
Only he who arrives at the knowledge of its solution 
can understand Froebel's method, which, ivithoiit t/ial, is 
wholly wanting in significance. But it is a very difficult 
task to give such knowledge to others by words, without 
their own observation and experience." 

" The word ' mystical ' does not recommend anything 
in our day," said the minister. " More than ever men de- 
sire clearness and understanding in all things." 



134 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

"Every new theory that comes into the world," I replied, 
"seems more or less mystical, because it is not quite under- 
stood ; and it is not quite understood because it has not 
yet found its place among the generally received views, 
and the right formula and expression are yet wanting to 
it. Therefore it happens that every new thing comes 
first into the hands of the rapacious, who have no under- 
standing for ideas, and only take hold of their outer rind 
to make them serviceable for their own ends. That all 
formation in the material as in the intellectual world pro- 
ceeds according to law, we know ; but the hoiv of this 
proceeding we know not. This law, which lies at the 
foundation of every process of development, must be 
recognized by the human mind as that law according to 
which all formation proceeds. It is the law by which 
God creates all things. And man, whose destiny it is to 
imitate what God has created, can only produce his own 
works according to the same law, since the human mind of 
itself can discover no law, — that is, no original law, — but 
everything is fixed and determined by God. Man only 
creates relatively by ever new combinations of existing 
things, while God alone is an absolute creator, — creates 
all things out of himself. The unconscious creativeness 
of instinct in the animal world as in the human world 
proceeds according to this same law of formation. The 
childish instinct bears the same law within itself as that 
by which the spider weaves and the silk-worm spins and 
the bee makes its cell. Therefore the mind of the child, 
living still in the twilight of unconsciousness, can easily 
apply this lawful procedure as soon as it is brought before 
his eyes in an elementary manner, in concrete things, and 
he is shown the mode of applying it. It is only because 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 135 

Froebel recognized this law of all formation, and found 
the method of its application, that his educational method 
is truly conformable to nature, since it leaves the natural 
process of development partly to self-activity, and guides 
and supports it according to that law. Therefore on this 
side, that is, for the activity that exercises all the powers 
and tendencies, free obedience is secured ; for every being 
strives, must strive, for his own development, how uncon- 
scious soever this striving may be. 

"This free production or creative activity shows the 
stamp of originality in the human being yet undimmed, 
however it may be obscured through deviation from God's 
law, in consequence of the freedom granted to him, and 
the inheritance of the sin and guilt of his ancestors. 
Formative activity brings to light the individual tenden- 
cies and peculiarities, makes each individual know him- 
self, and creates that satisfaction and sense of dignity 
which is inseparably connected with it. 

" In early childhood the outward form of this activity 
can only be that of play. To convert this play into cre- 
ative action, in the smallest measure, offers to the develop- 
ment of the whole being, from the very beginning, a sup- 
port and a guide as counterpoise to all wilfulness, which 
leads astray from the right. At the same time, through 
this free action of the individual tendencies, a counter- 
poise is gained to the levelling tendencies (6^/<?/r/^;;?^^^<fm) 
of our present conventional mode of education, which in 
the school and in the family proceeds only in a formal 
way, according to traditional prescriptions or demands, 
without respect to the measure of the powers of the 
pupils and the new demands of our time. The conse- 
quence is, that a too early excitement and overstraining 



J 36 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

reduces and weakens the sum of the powers, deadens and 
turns into machines the great majority who thus are in- 
capable of Hving out in an original way the divine ideas 
dwelling in every being. 

" All progress, all culture, is the result of the original 
creativeness of the minds of every age, which have been 
able to increase the sum of existing intellectual and mate- 
rial wealth by producing something new. 

"The imitators in a generation who allow themselves 
to be satisfied with what they have found at hand, and 
live and do only as they have been accustomed to do, 
can never bring about such an enrichment of civilization. 
Through them no advance, nothing new, has come into 
the world. 

"The creative power of every generation of living 
geniuses which leads to a higher state of culture is noth- 
ing else than that original power which, according to the 
indwelling law of God, can freely form and even organize. 
A generation is rich in power and influence in proportion 
as it possesses such original vigor. Therefore, of what 
immense importance is a method which can awaken and 
cultivate original creative power ! " 

" Are all men to be made geniuses by this method ? " 
said Herr von Wydenbrugk, with an incredulous smile. 

" Certainly not," I answered. " Genius must first be 
born before it can be educated for its task. There will 
be plenty of ballast. The method proposes only to in- 
crease the sum of creative power so far as it is according 
to God's will the task of each generation, and as is sig- 
nificantly expressed by all the demands of the present 
time. In the mean time, not the remotest pretension is 
made that the salvation of our time is to be secured by 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I37 

this educational method alone. Much must be done, many 
things must concur, in order that this slow transition in 
which we live shall give way to a new and better time. 
But one of the means for this end is the new education. 
We shall not have new men without a new education. 
And that can only be a new education which shall free 
human nature from the crushing fetters of a perverted 
education, and shall remedy the entire want of a true 
method for the masses. But indeed the new education 
can only reach the result indicated when its complete 
and universal application shall proceed with real method ; 
and we are as yet very far from that point. The dangers 
which threaten national order should require, it seems 
to me, of those whose duty it is to guard it, that they 
support with all their powers a cause which strives to 
oppose the bulwarlc of educational influence to the present 
perversion and demoralization, and smooth the path for 
the future free and conscious obedience to law, and thereby 
lead at the same time to the highest possible degree of 
freedom." 

" If national support were so easily to be gained, I 
think,'* said Herr von Wydenbrugk, " it w-ould not be 
found wanting in us. During the storm-flood the earth 
cannot be cultivated. We must first become masters 
again of the political situation before we can take in 
hand such necessary improvements. In the mean time, 
little as I deny the importance of a national education 
adapted to the time, and well as I see the advantages 
that may grow out of Froebel's method, yet I cannot 
believe so confidently as you do in the success, at least 
in the immediate success, of such improvements, which 
often pour but a drop into the sea! The rough masses, — 



138 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

do you know what that means? — there is the Rubicon in 
which for centuries numberless reforms have foundered." 

" On that very account," I repUed, " by means of a 
better and more general education, those rough masses 
must vanish out of society. This may indeed proceed 
slowly. When we look at long periods of time, the prog- 
ress of humanity and its culture are undeniable. All 
higher activity that reaches beyond the span of a life or 
a generation would cease if we could not have faith in 
an eternal progressive development of earthly things. 
We know not when the seed we sow shall ripen, but we 
must sow it if we would do our duty to posterity. But 
every one who sows his seed must leave its growth to 
higher powers." 

"That we will do," said Herr von Wydenbrugk, "and 
enter upon the work as soon as the moment has come, 
and there is rest in the land ; only do not expect too 
much, and do not forget that we small States cannot act 
quite independently, but must yield in everything to the 
Great Powers. Advise Froebel to exercise caution in the 
interest of his cause, in regard to connections, and in 
the choice of his representatives. There seem to be some 
among them who, because they are in danger themselves, 
endanger his work. These unripe political minds bring 
upon Froebel the reputation of adhering to the destruc- 
tive tendencies which they proclaim." 

" I thought," I replied, " that even a superficial knowl- 
edge of Froebel and his teaching might have protected 
him from such a suspicion. The motto of the revolution 
is overthrow, while Froebel's motto is development, — de- 
velopment of men and things. And the means by which 
Froebel would strive for the renewing of society and of 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 39 

the state are just the opposite of those of the revolu- 
tionary storm-birds, who, however, as well as real re- 
formers, have by their alarm-cry undoubtedly their part 
to fulfil for historical progress. 

" In order to be able to build up anew, there must 
always be destruction and removal of rubbish. Among 
these destroying hordes are also idealists who strive for 
the noble and the good, and are only led astray in regard 
to their means ; but all idealists and minds striving for 
progress and reform have undeniably their points of con- 
tact, and feel sympathy for each other, however far their 
views on the ways and means of reaching their goal may 
differ. These sympathies may lead Froebel astray in 
regard to persons ; and his own self-sacrificing spirit 
exposes him, perhaps, to be deceived by men following 
only the impulse of self-seeking. Caution and criticism 
are not his affair ; and who can see but with bleeding 
heart how the noblest and best must fall a sacrifice in 
political strifes ! Froebel feels this also, but he has never- 
theless separated from his nephews, who formerly, in their 
youth, shared very naturally the dominant revolutionary 
views, as is widely known." 

" These sacrifices to politics are unfortunately un- 
avoidable in times like ours," said the minister, " how- 
ever much many individuals may claim our sympathy 
and even our admiration. Where the preservation of the 
state and order are involved, the law can make no dis- 
crimination nor exercise forbearance in reference to indi- 
viduals." * 

* These extracts from my conversations with the minister Von Wyden- 
brugk are given here especially for the sake of contradicting some statements 
which were made afterwards in the Froebel circle, as if the minister had 
failed in promises given. He made no definite promises at that time. 



I40 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

When Froebel, toward the evening of the day on which 
this conversation passed, came into Liebenstein, and I 
introduced him to the minister, the latter took up anew 
our last conversation, which I had related to Froebel. 

Addressing Froebel, he said : " You do not, then, con- 
cur in the axiom of the revolutionists, which is, ' Every 
one is born free, and brings the right of personal freedom 
into the world with him ' ? " 

" No, " said Froebel, " not in their sense. Man, on 
the contrary, is born entirely fettered on all sides, and 
truly for this reason, that he can and must obtain free- 
dom only by his own striving. Freedom cannot be be- 
stowed upon us God himself cannot bestow it upon 
us, since it must be the product of our moral and intel- 
lectual unfettering, which it is possible to attain only by 
self-activity. Every individual has to free himself from 
the narrow fetters of his undeveloped condition of child- 
hood by the help of educational influences. Nations, 
and the human race also, which in the course of ages, 
taking its departure from the extreme condition of slav- 
ery, has risen, step by step, to the degree of freedom that 
has now been reached, have the same task. As soon as 
we apply the idea of organic development to human his- 
tory, we recognize clearly and significantly that every 
kind of real freedom is the result of culture, which ex- 
cludes as contradictory to it the caprice of the individual. 
But this culture of individuals and of nations cannot be 
forced, and cannot be gained at a blow. It is the result 
of consecutive development. Hence the rude masses 
can never be free ; on the contrary, it is they who hinder 
all freedom, even for those who possess the requisite 
degree of culture for it. This our heroes of freedom for- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 14I 

get when they expect universal freedom from merely out- 
ward national and political changes and innovations. 
The freedom of nations depends on the degree of culture 
of the majority of their members, and, like all good 
things, — like man himself, — is at once the work of 7ia- 
ture, man, and God, which depends not on the arbitrari- 
ness of individuals, not even upon the greatest posses- 
sors of power. The human race needed many centuries, 
a long and strong school of experience, before it was ripe 
for the present stage of development, which demands 
a renewing of human life in all its departments. But 
people misunderstand the call of the time, which is 
'unity of life,' or the equilibrium of existing contrasts 
in the human world, the abrogation of the two great 
differences in culture, the elevation of those unjustly 
oppressed and neglected." 

" If you mean that diversities in human society are to 
be abolished, a levelling and equalizing of men to take 
place, you do agree with the innovators and their ideas,'* 
'said the minister, interrupting him. 

" Certainly I do not," rejoined Froebel, " for then the 
manifoldness of human relations would cease, upon which 
depend all unanimity and all equilibrium in the human 
world as well as in God's world, — the universe in which 
the infinite variety is the means of order and harmony. 
This variety in the world is ordained by God ; it is the 
law of the universe, which cannot be abolished by the 
caprice of individuals ; it is the united work of nature, 
man, and God. The motto of the revolution cited by you 
ought to be, 'AH have a claim to culture, to the develop- 
ment of the powers and dispositions with which they are 
endowed, but this within the limits which his earthly 



142 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

relations point out to each one, and which is enjoined 
upon the whole through the duty of individuals. 

" But there are two classes of oppressed people who 
cannot enjoy the proper degree of culture in the existing 
state of things, and to whom more freedom — I mean 
more freedom of development — must be granted, to 
make it possible for all to reach a higher degree of 
culture." 

" And they are ? " said Herr von Wydenbrugk. 

" Women and children," answered Froebel. " These 
are the most oppressed and neglected of all. They 
have not yet been fully recognized in their dignity as 
parts of human society. If progress and a greater de- 
gree of freedom depend largely upon the degree of uni- 
versal culture, then it is woman, to whom God and nature 
have pointed out the first educational office in the family, 
upon whom this progress especially depends. And if 
childhood in its whole importance, in its lofty dignity 
as the germ of mankind, was sufficiently respected and 
honored, recognized in its nature and its claims for edu- 
cation, means and opportunities would be offered to all 
classes of society and to every individual to develop 
their God given powers and dispositions, and to enable 
them to use them for the benefit of society within the 
limits set by their circumstances and talents. 

" I know that this is the work of centuries. The 
present time demands that the foundation be laid for it 
by an education corresponding to its demands, and 
worthy of human dignity. And to lay this foundation is 
the aim of my kindergarten, which is to prevent the chil- 
dren of the masses from growing up like little savages, 
and also to save the schools from a lawlessness which is 
miscalled liberty. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 43 

" This earliest age is the most important one for edu- 
cation, because the beginning decides the manner of 
progress and the end. If national order is to be recog- 
nized in later years as a benefit, childhood must first be 
accustomed to law and order, and therein find the means 
of freedom. Lawlessness and caprice must rule in no 
period of life, not even in that of the nursling. 

*' The kindergarten life, according to its ideal, is a 
micrometric human life in the past, present, and future. 
Kindergartens inherit the acquired riches of inward and 
outward experiences, and the knowledge of the human 
race of all times in its collective result ; they carry man 
as child back into the original relations to the family, to 
nature, and to himself, in order to fit him for living his 
life both in and out of himself with conscious percep- 
tion ; I say perception, not knowledge, for which his age 
is yet unsuitable. Perception is the beginning and the 
preliminary condition for thinking. One's own percep- 
tions awaken one's own conceptions, and these awaken 
one's own thinking in later stages of development. Let 
us have no precocity, but natural, that is consecutive, 
organic development. 

"This process of going through all the stages of 
development that the human race has traversed from the 
past up to the present can alone lead man to a clear 
consciousness of himself and his life, as is demanded by 
the present stage of knowledge. From this the knowl- 
edge will be gained how the action of mankind, indeed, 
of the smallest child, depends upon willing. But the 
will is determined by the mind. The mind is the think- 
ing power, and thinking develops according to laws. 
The mind works only according to the laws of thinking. 



144 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

and the laws of thinking determine the intelligent action 
of man. The cultivated action of thoroughly cultivated 
men depends, then, not upon arbitrary will, but upon laws 
as sure as the phenomena in the life of nature. As 
motion in the universe depends upon the law of gravita- 
tion, so human life depends upon the law of the 'unity 
of life.' The laws of the ' unity of life ' are the elevated 
laws of the solar systems, consequently those of the 
universe, in which man is the highest blossom and fruit. 
Thus the laws of spiritual development need to be com- 
prehended as distinctly as the laws of the formation of 
the world. 

" The laws of the universe a?'e the same as the latas of hu- 
man education. Kindergartens form a stage of develop- 
ment in the culture of man, out of which the succeeding 
stages will follow according to a determined law, as is 
the case in organic life. Every noble friend of man 
should help to make the first stage of culture such as to 
insure the right conditions for the following stages, — let 
him belong to what party he may. 

" By establishing kindergartens that nearly approach 
the ideal, men would learn whether or not it is a work 
of God, and would see " what practical, all-sided, and 
deeply grounded development, as a creative being, man 
is capable of. 

" My object now is to bring such a model institution 
into operation at Marienthal as will at the same time 
include the educating of kindergartners. But not merely 
shall women learn to be conductors of kindergartens, 
that is, to understand the nature of children, and to be 
able to take care of and to educate them, physically and 
spiritually, but the whole female sex, in all classes and 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I45 

conditions of life, shall take up the new education of 
man, and learn to apply it, as God-appointed nurses and 
guardians of children. If the female sex, as a whole, 
shall be made capable of administering this holy office 
as the present general stage of development of civilized 
humanity requires, then it will itself be liberated from its 
own ignorance and oppression. For this office involves 
all culture and all elevation which the female sex needs 
in order to show to the other half of humanity the place 
befitting itself in the community and in humanity. 

" Support us in making the beginning of this educa- 
tion, without which the demands of the present time, and 
still less those of the future, can never be fulfilled, and 
without which the new spring-time which will open, by 
God's will, will be arrested in its opening. What must 
come, according to eternal laws must come, and cannot 
be prevented by man's work, — it is the work of God 
and nature ; but it can be delayed and interrupted by 
the freedom granted to man when caprice rules instead 
of law." 

Herr von Wydenbrugk, who had listened with evident 
attention and interest to Froebel's exposition, pressed his 
hand warmly, and promised for his part to do the bestshe 
could for the support of the work as soon as outward 
circumstances would permit ; adding that " too extrava- 
gant bounds should not be given to this possibility." 

None of us, including the minister, had at that mo- 
ment even a distant presentiment of what the next year 
would bring to our holy cause, which still stood so incon- 
spicuous and defenceless, but upheld by the unshakable 
faith of its immediate representative, who knew himself 
to be the bearer of a divine idea. 



146 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Our cause now stands firm," said Froebel one day 
soon after the visit of the minister, " even if the enemies 
of all popular education and of every kind of advance 
should come out against it ever so violently." 

"Yes, I think so too," I replied; "at least, with re- 
spect to the introduction of the kindergarten, and in 
general the external and practical part of the cause. But 
the idea lying at the foundation is understood hardly at 
all. I see more and more how the statement of it in 
short public lectures is insufficient to create the right un- 
derstanding, even in the best minds, unless earnest study 
follows. You must write something which shall state 
briefly the fundamental idea and the principles of method 
growing out of it." 

" Briefly ! " repeated Froebel ; " then people will mis- 
understand me more than they already do in my ' Educa- 
tion of Man,' which I should think expresses clearly my 
fundamental thoughts, at least. The generally received 
ideas upon the being of man are so vague, the child's 
nature in its first springs of motive and in its expression 
is so little understood, that but very little can be done by 
written statements. 

" See how the votaries of different philosophical sys- 
tems quarrel with each other, without being able to make 
themselves mutually understood. Not the word alone, 
but, above all, action must guarantee the truth of my 
cause. At present, if the practical results of the kinder- 
gartens and the maternal feeling is favorable, then, later, 
writings will appear that will recognize my idea in all its 
depth, show its necessity for the present stage of human 
development, and put it in its right place in the new 
views of things now forming. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I47 

" Yes, even should my idea be lost for the want of a 
correct understanding of it, it will surely awaken anew in 
some other mind, since it is a need of the time, and God 
sends nothing into the world which does not bring forth 
its fruit in due season. 

" Go on quietly. Nothing happens without God's per- 
mission, and however much men may interfere with the 
good and true by their caprice and destructiveness, 
man's work cannot prevail against the work of God and 
nature ; either of the latter is stronger than the former. 
Men can interfere obstructively and destructively for mo- 
ments only with what is ordained by God, but they can 
never really prevent it. That is my trust, even if I am 
neither understood nor supported, — indeed, even if I am 
persecuted. 

" Once, in a moment of doubt whether I should have 
the power to persevere with my cause, the thought came 
to me : What could you do to save your idea if you 
should be thrown into a dark dungeon where you could 
not write or express yourself in any way ? But I soon 
found what I should do in order that the truth of which 
God made me the bearer should not be lost even to the 
present generation. If human tongues are silenced, the 
stones will speak, in order to testify to the truth, I 
thought — " 

Froebel here interrupted himself to look at the clock, 
which pointed to the beginning of the hour when he was 
accustomed to go to his school of kindergartners, and he 
requested me to go with him and take part. In vain I 
endeavored afterwards to come back to the subject ; the 
time for it never came. How much, indeed, has remained 
unexplained, which would have made me understand 



148 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

many obscurities in his views and ideas ! But it was im- 
possible to hold him for a long time to one train of 
thought, or to turn him from his thought of the moment 
into any other direction. If he was occupied with one 
subject it was difficult to move him from it to enter upon 
any other. 

The increasing number of visitors to Marienthal who 
wished to understand his education claimed almost en- 
tirely the time of his leisure hours, and he exhausted his 
powers by statements of his views more than was good 
for his health. Besides, the plan was often considered 
of summoning a teachers' convention at Liebenstein for 
the next summer (1851), in which his educational princi- 
ples should be discussed. A great domestic festival was 
also in view for the spring, — Froebel's nuptials with 
Fraulein Levin, who had for several months been be- 
trothed to him. 

Froebel longed for a real family life. He wished his 
pupils to be able to take part in one, according to his 
principle that the education of girls for the family must 
take place in the family circle. 

When he imparted to Diesterweg and myself his in- 
tention to give his hand to Fraulein Levin, who super- 
intended the household with so much discretion and 
conscientiousness, and was already such a motherly friend 
and teacher to his pupils, we could only sympathize with 
it, and rejoice that he was thus secure of a faithful and 
tender nurse for his old age. His vigor, which his con- 
stant activity still insured him, made the thought of his 
second marriage appear less strange. No one who did 
not know it could believe that his age was sixty-eight. 
The youth and freshness of intellect, which were so re- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 49 

markable in him, prevented one from thinking of his 
actual age, whose infirmities had not yet appeared. 
Those minds which live only for the service of mankind, 
and have a universal human work to carry out, begin 
their eternal life upon earth. 

Froebel possessed in an extraordinary degree the sense 
of family life, — domesticity, — which he hoped to ani- 
mate and exalt by his education. The communications 
he had made to me at times concerning his profoundly 
honored first wife, and her letters, from which he had 
often read to me, showed how he had striven to realize 
his high ideal of marriage in his own life. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DR. R. BENFEY AND TEACHER HERMANN POSCHE. 

AMONG the visitors to Marienthal in the summer of 
1850 were Dr. Rudolph Benfey and Teacher Her- 
mann Posche, afterward zealous promoters of Froebel's 
cause, both of whom are now full of enthusiasm for his 
doctrine, and are to be counted in the small number of 
those who have worked for it from free conviction, with- 
out personal views, and with enduring zeal. 

The comprehensive learning of Dr. Benfey gave much 
opportunity for conversation on themes lying apparently 
quite far from our circle of thought. With great courtesy 
he yielded to our request to illustrate in short discourses 
historical epochs and personalities, by which occasion 
was afforded almost always to compare Froebel's views 
with those of others, and particularly with the pedagogic 



150 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

views of Greek antiquity, especially with the ideas of 
Plato on the education of children, which in manifold 
ways concurred with Froebel's. 

On a social walk to Altenstein, where I had invited 
the company to sup at the little inn at that place, some 
remarks of Dr. Benfey's upon the Greek manner of view- 
ing things were fully discussed in a lively manner by 
Froebel. 

Upon my saying how history, particularly the history 
of culture, demonstrated the uninterrupted connection 
between the past and present, the consideration of which 
Froebel always pointed out to us as one of the most 
important principles of education, Froebel said : " In 
human development, unity and connection show them- 
selves everywhere ; the past, present, and future form a 
chain whose links are joined inseparably. Human his- 
tory shows the same uninterrupted development as the 
universe, and all development in the spiritual, as in the 
material world, proceeds according to the same law. The 
height of culture in the Greek world could not possibly 
have been reached without the preceding stages of devel- 
opment of that and other nations. Beauty of body, sup- 
pleness of limb, power of muscle, and gracefulness of 
movement in the Greek were the result of the physical 
exertions and exercises of their forefathers, and the in- 
heritance of a culture measured by centuries. But the 
higher development always has the task of influencing 
and elevating the steps of culture below it. 

" Thus the Greek, afterward the Roman culture and 
civilization have acted upon other uncultivated races and 
made them capable of higher cultivation. Indeed, even 
at the present time that cultivating influence is indirectly 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I51 

at work on ourselves, as well as directly through the clas- 
sical literature of the time. 

"As the life of the human race moves on through all 
epochs, in living connection, like a single life, so the life 
and development of every individual proceeds in unin- 
terrupted connection. 

"The peculiar character whose germ even the nursling 
shows to him who contemplates the child's nature under- 
standingly is found again in the older child, still further 
on in the youth, again in the adult, and at last in the gray- 
beard. No one stage of life can be separated from the 
others. So each generation of men is connected with 
the preceding, and at the same time determines the char- 
acter of the following. 

" What use shall we now make of this fact of an in- 
separable connection of all things and all times for the 
education of our children ? 

" This use : that we look upon them and treat them as 
individual spiritual beings, and then that we teach them 
to perceive things in this connection." 

One of the company present interrupted Froebel with 
the question : " How is this practicable in the first years 
of life ? The child may be treated in this manner by 
the grown-up educators, but how to effect the object of 
making the child perceive things in their connection is 
inconceivable to me." 

Froebel replied : "Every child brings with him into the 
world the natural disposition to see correctly what is 
before him, or, in other words, the truth. If things are 
shown to him in their connection, his soul perceives them 
thus, as a conception. But if, as often happens, things 
are brought before his mind singly, or piecemeal and in 



152 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

fragments, then the natural disposition to see correctly is 
perverted to the opposite, and the healthy mind is per- 
plexed. 

" How one shall begin practically to make for the child 
the first representation of things in their constant con- 
nection, in a correct and clear manner, I have shown 
plainly in my ' Mother and Cosset Songs,' and still fur- 
ther in my play-g(fts. 

" Look upon these last ; how they proceed from the 
ball as a symbol of unity, and then pass over from this 
in a consecutive manner to the manifoldness of form in 
the cube ; how the cube is then divided according to the 
law of the connection of opposites ; how each succeed- 
ing form (in the play) goes forth from the preceding, and 
how not only the connection according to a law of all the 
parts of the play-material exhibits clearly the union into 
one whole, but the child perceives through his own 
action that he only obtains his building (or other figures) 
when he unites into a whole, in a regular and lawful man- 
ner, the parts which he is handling. In such ways he is 
to perceive that all connection implies opposites which 
can be joined together, and again that no opposites are 
to be seen in the properties of things which cannot be 
connected. 

" The linking together that is everywhere found, and 
which holds the universe in its wholeness and unity, the 
eye receives, and thereby receives the representation, but 
without understanding it, except as an impression and an 
image ; but these first impressions are the root fibres for 
the understanding that is developed later. The correct 
perception is a preparation for correct knowing and think- 
ing. What the child perceives by the material and by the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 153 

handling of it must be and is supported by the plays and 
songs of the ' mother' book, because what the child is 
pleasantly occupied with, and gives its whole attention 
to, leads to the proximate cause of the effect perceived, 
and this leads later to recognition of the ultimate cause, — 
God. 

" This seems to us impossible and strange only so long 
as we do not know the how, which is perfectly simple, like 
all truth. 

"Look now at the book, and you will learn to know the 
how. For example, when the child drinks his milk, what 
is more natural than to show him the cow or point to its 
picture, then to the cow's food, the grass, whose growth 
does not depend upon man, and so gradually come to the 
invisible Creator of visible things ? 

" Another example shows in picture, in word, and in 
reality the bread which serves for the child's nourishment, 
from the grain to the flour, till it leads back to its source. 
Thus we put the sequence together for the child in a 
childlike manner, so as to be easily apprehended by him. 

"Does any other connection rule in philosophical 
deduction than this which I call the child to perceive 
when I play with him at bread-baking [pat-a-cake]? The 
logic is and remains a consecutive thinking and conclu- 
sion, whether applied to the things themselves or to the 
abstract conceptions of things." 

*' That is perfectly evident," I answered ; " the child 
before whose eyes sensible objects are brought, in the 
correct order of parts to the whole, and in the logical 
connection of things, will, when reflective power is de- 
veloped, perceive this order and logical connection clearly 
and definitely in the intellectual world also, and be con- 



154 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Strained in a measure to refer back the visible objects to 
their invisible causes, to the ultimate cause of all phe- 
nomena. It is just as evident that no order and no con- 
nection can exist without a rule or a determining law at 
the foundation, and it is impossible that there should be 
two different laws of logic in the world of sense and in 
the world of mind, since both are inseparably connected. 

" The thought that forms anything whatever can per- 
fect it stricdy only according to the law of its thinking 
(logic), and therefore all harmony between the material 
formation in the conception of the mind and in the repre- 
sentation rests upon law, and, indeed, it must be one and 
the same law. That is as clear as the sun. 

" You have recognized the law of harmony or equilib- 
rium which rules in the universe, and you have made it 
the regulator of the child's action. Therein lies the sig- 
nificance of your method. Its practical exercises spring 
out of this idea, and. are only important so far as they 
bring the law lying at the foundation into application. 
When only used mechanically they are nothing but tech- 
nical exercises. But how difficult it is to make this gen- 
erally apprehended ! " 

Froebel thouo^ht that would be effected hereafter through 
the pupils who were growing up from the kindergarten. 
He went on with his explanations. 

" Every age of life has its own peculiar claims and 
needs in respect of nurture and educational assistance, 
appropriate to it alone ; what is lost to the nursling can- 
not be made good in later childhood, and so on. The 
child, and afterward the youth, have other needs and 
make other demands than the nursling, which must be 
met at their proper ages, not earlier, not later. Losses 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 55 

which have taken place in the first stage of life, in which 
the heart-leaves — the germ-leaves of the whole being — 
unfold, are never made up. If I pierce the young leaf 
of the shoot of a plant with the finest needle, the prick 
forms a knot which grows with the leaf, becomes harder 
and harder, and prevents it from obtaining its perfectly 
complete form. Something similar takes place after 
wounds which touch the tender germ of the human soul 
and injure the heart-leaves of its being. 

"Therefore you," here Froebel turned to his pupils, 
" must keep holy the being of the child ; protect it from 
every rough and rude impression, from every touch of 
the vulgar. A gesture, a look, a sound, is often sufficient 
to inflict such wounds. The child's soul is more tender 
and vulnerable than the finest or tenderest plant. It 
would have been far different with humanity, if every 
individual in it had been protected in that tenderest age 
as befitted the human soul which holds within itself the 
divine spark. 

" The first impressions which a young child receives 
are stronger and more lasting than those in later life, 
because that power of resistance is then wanting which 
its later consciousness brings. As the thriving of the 
child's body depends in a great measure upon its breath- 
ing pure air, so the purity and morality of the soul de- 
pend partly on the impressions which the nursling and 
child receive. The careful nursing of the inner spiritual 
life must begin much earlier than the expression of it is 
possible, before its tender susceptibility is disturbed by 
outward influences. This tender susceptibility requires 
a tender handling, or it is in a certain sense choked, as 
if I should cover the growing roots of this little plant I 



156 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

have here with sand. No development can be forced, — 
not in nature, still less in the human mind. With right 
care, everything blossoms in its own time. If I forcibly 
tear open this poppy-bud, its fine folded leaves may be 
seen, but the flower will not unfold ; it withers within. 
In the same manner many a child's soul, artificially and 
violently broken into, will wither within, be despoiled, and 
at least not bear the fruit it was destined to bring forth. 

" Now, what can we do for the unfolding of these heart- 
leaves of the life, which contain the whole future man, 
with all his finest tendencies? 

" We must launch the child from its birth into the free 
and all-sided use of its powers. That is just the aim of 
these plays and occupations which exercise the yet un- 
seen powers of the nursling on every side. But we must 
not, as is often erroneously done, take care only of the 
bodily powers by exercising merely the senses and limbs, 
and then later, when the school-period arrives, make the 
intellectual powers alone act ; but steadily, and during 
the whole era of childhood, body and mind should be 
exercised and cultivated together. The mind develops 
itself in and with the organs that are inseparably con- 
nected with it in the earthly life. Child's play strengthens 
the powers both of the soul and the body, provided we 
know how to make the first self-occupation of a child a 
freely active, that is, a creative or a productive one. 

" The will is strengthened only by voluntary activity. 
By striving to create and produce the beautiful and good, 
the feelings are developed, and by all lawful, thoughtful, 
free activity the mind is cultivated. But such activity 
sets aside all extraneous education, and that outside in- 
doctrinating that is not in unison either with the nature 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 157 

of the child or with his actual state of development; 
and it puts self-education and self-indoctrinating in their 
place. 

" In our public instruction we generally begin with the 
abstract, with which we should close. This is in the 
highest degree ruinous, particularly for the mass of the 
people, whose task in their later life is work that should 
be productive. 

" The first educational task is to make the child ac- 
quainted with the things of the material world, which 
constitute the basis of the abstract. Knowledge of ma- 
terial things can only be had by handling them, and the 
formation and transformation of material is therefore the 
best mode of gaining this knowledge for childhood. 

" My plays and occupations show the possibility of 
doing this. Even if I have brought no new thoughts to 
the subject, as some will maintain, even if the goal and 
aim of this education has long been known, I have given 
something new in my childish plays, for they show how 
we must begin to give activity to the powers of childhood, 
in order that they shall neither rust and be lost for want 
of use, nor overstrained by too early study, the capacity 
of which at that age is still wanting. 

"When we ask for artistic industry, that our dignity 
may not be lost by the substitution of machine-work, we 
find stiff and awkward fingers ; we ask for a sense of 
beautiful form, harmony of colors, etc., in the workman, 
and find only dull eyes and senses, which cannot tell the 
crooked from the straight, and know not how to put light 
and shadow in the right places. Indeed, when profes- 
sional and art schools are opened for grown-up youth 
only, they cannot repair what was lost in childhood, let 
ever so much teaching be furnished. 



158 REMINISCENCES OF FROE^L. 

" Technical skill must be given in early childhood if 
the human hand is not to be outdone by the machine, 
and the sense of beauty must be awakened in the soul 
in childhood if in later life he is to create the beautiful. 

"But the life of the unconscious being — reason and 
the principle of law which govern in it, and express them- 
selves in childish action — is not yet recognized, and 
on that account it is thought we must wait for a higher 
degree of consciousness before we point out their aim to 
the blindly groping powers, and furnish them the means 
of reaching it, else the unconscious action which instinc- 
tively and correctly feels its aim will be turned aside 
from it and peremptorily forced into other paths. It is 
not seen that reason is on the side of unconsciousness, 
and the want of reason on the side of consciousness, but 
we must discriminate between what is legitimate and what 
is arbitrary in that instinct in which God rules with iron 
necessity. Nature is God's work, not God himself, who 
rules it but never violates its laws which he himself es- 
tablished. 

" Even in the child nature does not allow itself to be 
forced, but only checked or disturbed. Therefore edu- 
cation must follow nature gently and protectingly, not 
forcibly or violently. Education smooths the way and 
creates the material which serves the forming instinct ; 
protects and leads the feeble powers, and offers to the 
investigating senses the types of the beautiful, the good, 
and the true ; then the bud of being will unfold as surely 
as the bud of the tree, to bring forth its fruit. It is true 
that many a young bud conceals the worm that destroys 
it, and in spite of every care makes the fruit fall off be- 
fore the time, or allows evil fruit to ripen, but that is not 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 59 

the rule. An education true to nature conquers many a 
bad tendency, removes the mildew from many a flower, 
and brings to shame the worm that is gnawing upon it. 

" Do you know how you can awaken the divine spark 
in your child ? Let him behold the beautiful in form and 
color, in tone and gesture, whenever the spiritual element 
in him threatens to sink away in the satisfaction of bodily 
wants, or desires threaten to draw him into the animal 
sphere. Then awaken in him the impulse of activity, 
and exercise it to a degree of effort which will steel the 
will, even in the nursling, while he is playing with his 
limbs, exercising his Hsping organs of speech, and while 
his ear is taking the cradle-song into his soul. 

" Only by the mediation of the agreeable do the 
germs of the spiritual awake in the child. He must be 
knit to what is pleasant, and that in his own action ; he 
must be gained over through his ow^n effort ; this will not 
satisfy coarse wants, but will awaken that slumbering 
ideal which waits for the incentive from without to burst 
forth. But the sense of the ideal dwells in every child's 
soul, even if not in equal strength in all. If it were not 
so, human life would never be enlightened by rays of the 
ideal. Nothing can come forth from the cotiscioiis hu- 
man being that did not lie germinating in the tmconscious 
soul of the child. 

" From unity — God — everything goes out unconscious 
to return back conscious. In consciousness ripens per- 
sonality (relative in man, absolute in God), which is eter- 
nal in its particularity and peculiarity, — one note in the 
great harmony of the universe, never passing away, con- 
tinuing into infinity. 

"The stage of personal consciousness once reached 



l6o REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

can never retrograde, even as nothing that has once been 
done can be undone ; no personal consciousness can pass 
away, it is eternal ; no grain of sand can perish, it can 
only enter into new connections, be transformed as every- 
thing else is ; for everything must go on developing, — 
that is the universal law." 

Thus Froebel often talked at length upon his personal 
views, and forgot the time it occupied, and even the per- 
sons to whom he was speaking. Those who listened to 
him were often obliged to supplement his aphoristic pre- 
cepts, in order to hold fast the logical thread which was 
apparently often broken. 

The thought of the '' unison " between nature and man 
as sprung from one and the same Creator always reap- 
peared in various forms and relations. The unity of man 
with nature must be recognized. This has hitherto been 
prevented by the separation in the human soul brought 
to consciousness through guilt and sin. Froebel saw fully 
expressed in Christianity the recognition of the unity of 
humanity with God (as the child of God). As he has 
said in one of his essays : " The Christian religion en- 
tirely completes the mutual relation between God and 
man ; all education which is not founded on the Christian 
religion is one-sided, defective, and fruitless." 

But the knowledge of the method of that union and 
unity with nature, to which the present stage of human 
development is leading, is still wanting. This would 
bring about a deeper understanding of the eternal truths 
of Christianity which has been lost up to the present 
time by empty word-teaching, without awakening religious 
feeling and man's inborn sense of truth. The recogni- 
tion of truth begins in the real, visible world in the phe- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. l6l 

nomena of nature, in which the laws of God are to be 
found, learned, and known as unchanged and unchange- 
able. This knowledge forms the firm foundation and 
underpinning for the recognition of supersensuous truths 
which, speaking from all things, are by the sense of anal- 
ogy bound up with the visible, material world of God, in 
which all and every development proceeds, from the low- 
est to the highest, from the least to the greatest. The 
unity of the human mind with the Divine mind shall find 
its confirmation through the easily acquired knowledge 
of God's mind (Reason) in creation and the sensuous 
world, and the life of man in it must be immediately knit 
with the supersensuous spiritual world, in order to abol- 
ish the separation between these two poles of human 
knowledge and human life, and bridge over the abyss 
which is created by a too far-reaching dualism. 

But Froebel was far from wishing to abolish the dis- 
tinction which separates the sensuous and spiritual world, 
and gives to dualism its partial justification. And he 
was still more distant from the coarse or the refined 
materialistic theories at present in vogue, which deny 
everything spiritual in order to lift unconscious matter to 
the throne and make all spirit subject to it. The idea 
of the unity of life, in his sense, is a much more com- 
plete contradiction of materialism, and better fitted to 
abolish that error than anything else, and to lead us into 
the right path for the further advancement of the idea of 
the accordance between the laws of nature and those of 
the mind. 

Froebel now stayed the stream of his speech, which 
had been poured forth with a certain youthful ardor; for 
it was growing dark, and the coolness of the autumnal 



l62 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

evening warned us to go in and take the supper which 
was ready. 

After the most earnest disquisition, Froebel was wont 
to change with perfect ease into a gay and cheerful mood, 
but I had hardly ever seen him so childlike and animated 
as on that evening at our simple omektte supper. He 
was full of jokes with his pupils, bantering Fraulein Levin 
with doubts of her power to make omelettes equal to 
those, and disputing with Herr Benfey on the events of 
the time, which they did not view quite alike. At last 
he said to me that I ought to arrange such suppers more 
frequently. 

On our way home, I put to him the question, whether 
he was not of the opinion that by and by, after the 
fullest introduction and application of his method of 
education, every one of those so educated would be able 
to think philosophically, because independently ; since 
ideas indwelling in things and going forth from them 
with the conceptions thereby conditioned would gradu- 
ally come to be understood, adding, " It appears to me 
that through this connection of the intellectual and con- 
crete worlds there must be given a concrete founda- 
tion to the philosophical systems resting upon abstrac- 
tions, which the least thinking power would suffice to 
understand." 

Froebel smiled, agreeably surprised by these supposi- 
tions, and said : " A correct and sound perception of 
things, even a certain degree of capacity to form concep- 
tions proceeding from them, must undoubtedly, in the 
course of time, lead to a natural and completely satis- 
factory education of the human being, notwithstanding 
the differences that will exist in the gift of recognizing 
the supersensuous and intellectual. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 63 

"As the true poet must be born, so must the true 
philosopher. But it is my deepest conviction that the 
time must come when the chasm between things and 
the more or less abstract conception of things will be 
filled up. You are right in saying that hitherto phi- 
losophy has been without the true foundation which 
natural science alone can afford it. It is just this foun- 
dation which my method of education is to supply. The 
understanding of the unconscious is the germ and begin- 
ning of the conscious, and so surely as they stand in 
connection with each other, so surely the one as well as 
the other has its origin in unity, — God. 

" How does all the world's wisdom help us, so long 
as it remains only a thought in the mind, and is not 
LIVED OUT, and does not pass over into the human 
world.'' Every one must act, therefore there must be 
a universal wisdom comprehensible by all, and every one 
must learn its application (that is, be practised in it) from 
childhood up. This wisdom is contained in Christianity, 
— in pure Christianity ; but it is buried deep for most 
men. Men learn to teach it indeed, but only in words, 
which least of all things lead to actual understanding. 

" But whatever is to be applied in actual life must be 
understood, while everything else belongs only to the 
domain of belief. Acting and producing, moreover, can- 
not be taught by words alone ; they require practical 
exercise from the beginning. 

"We wish to create for children a practical school in 
which they shall learn to act according to the descrip- 
tions of pure Christianity, that is, according to the com- 
mands of God, before they learn these prescriptions and 
commands as dogmas. Such exercise in doing will bring 



164 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

them that experience which Jesus required, when he said, 
* If any man will do his will he shall know of the doc- 
trine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself/ 
" And when the stones speak, and nature confirms the 
written revelation by its laws, who will then be able to 
doubt its truth ? Religion is union with God, and man 
can be united with God only by seeing, believing, and 
acting with God, and not by either one of these three 
things alone. Expressions of this truth are not wanting 
in Holy Writ. But we only take note of that which 
theology has taken out for its most important dogmas. 
We have not yet come nearly to the full understanding 
of the Holy Writ ; its truths always require new vouch- 
ers ; ever new and deeper recognition on other sides, 
in order to be placed in their right light. Jesus himself 
by many of his expressions has pointed out tlxat the 
human mind is to rise to ever higher knowledge of 
Divine things; that under God's leading it shall goon 
from faith to sight. Hence the expression, 'I cannot 
tell you all things now,' said Jesus, 'but the Comforter 
will come, who will lead you to all truth,' etc." 

Whoever doubts Froebel's deep understanding of the 
Bible and the Christian idea, should see a Bible w^hich 
he possessed from childhood, whose leaves are worn 
quite thin by constant use, and all whose margins are 
written over with remarks testifying to his earnestness 
and deep spirit of inquiry. Some communications which 
he made to me from these commentaries, and his partial 
inspection of manuscripts in which my own religious 
views were expressed, gave many occasions for discus- 
sion of his religious opinions. But time was wanting to 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 165 

return often to this subject, and I was obliged on this, as 
on other points, to fill many a gap by later study of his 
writings. 

At that time I could not possibly have given the above 
7'esume of his clearly expressed views of the spirit and 
the reason in the unconscious, for which he sought types 
and symbols in the concrete world, in order thereby to 
awaken and enlighten the unconscious mind of child- 
hood. 

In spite of Froebel's defective mode of expression, 
and the frequently aphoristic way in which he suggested 
his views, the present investigators of the conscious 
might reach many an explanation through his idea, and 
would arrive at other and more satisfactory results than 
have heretofore been brought to light by that "philosophy 
of the unconscious" which heats the heads of to-day. 



CHAPTER XII. 

DR. WICHARD LANGE. 

TO my question who among his scholars he considered 
the best able to illustrate and work out the philo- 
sophicaland psychological side of his teaching, he answered 
that Dr.Wichard Lange (just at that time betrothed toMid- 
dendorff's daughter) would certainly be capable of it, if 
he would give himself wholly up to the subject, but that 
unfortunately he had already decided on another direc- 
tion for his practical activity, and wnshed to continue in 
the school department of education, so that he would be 



l66 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

prevented from giving all his time and powers to this 
cause, as would be indispensable to his success. 

I saw, however, that he did not give up all hope of 
making Dr. Lange favorable to his wish, which was that 
he should instruct kindergartners and other teachers in 
the method, and subsequently spread it by his word and 
pen. He hoped that a proposed visit of Dr. Lange to 
Liebenstein would lead to a decision. This visit took 
place later, but without leading to the hoped-for result. 

When I went to Marienthal one stormy autumnal 
evening, I was told that Dr. Lange had arrived. After 
all that Froebel as well as Diesterweg — whose favorite 
pupil Lange was — had said to me in praise of him, I was 
desirous of a personal acquaintance. When, on entering, 
I heard loud and eager talking in Froebel's apartment, 
I waited in the adjoining lecture-room, in order not 
to interrupt the conversation. They soon came out to 
greet me, however. 

At that time Lange's whole manner expressed the 
same energetic character which he afterward showed 
in his action ; and no less did his remarkable thinking 
power and great natural gifts appear on his high, broad 
brow. His open, free, natural character infused trust 
and sympathy immediately ; and, therefore, I regretted 
the more not having opportunity at once for the more 
intimate exchange of thought which I have enjoyed in 
later years. 

The contests that occurred between him and Froebel, 
in consequence of the demand of the latter that Lange 
should devote himself entirely to the cause, and give up 
the school career that he had chosen, took away time and 
disposition for sympathetic conversation. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 67 

Lange's refusal, supported by sufficient and intelligible 
reasons, to comply with Froebel's demand to give up the 
career he had already chosen, with all its consequences, 
threw Froebel into great excitement, for he wished to 
win in Lange a prominent advocate of his idea. 

Lange, on the contrary, felt his inner calling to be a 
schoolman, for which he had been inspired by Diester- 
weg, of whom he strikingly reminded me in his whole 
nature. He was of the opinion that the practice of the 
Froebelian method must in the first place be advocated 
and organized by women, before men should interpose 
with their help, and before the method, as such, should 
be taken in hand by men of science. To the instruction 
of the female sex, which was desired from him, he felt 
neither inclination nor calling ; he wished to go his own 
way independently, especially not to follow exclusively 
in the footsteps of another, even of Froebel, in spite of 
his full concurrence with him in his idea, and his recog- 
nition of the greatness of his work.* His support of 
Froebel, and the application of the principles recognized 
as the correct ones, he promised to undertake with his 
best powers, so far as his chosen calling permitted. 

Such nearly were the views of Lange, the justice of 
which was not to be contested ; but Froebel inconsider- 
ately required his full surrender, and every sacrifice for 
the working out of his idea. 

" Cast everything behind you and follow me," he 
thought he also ought to require from his disciples. So, 
of course, it came to a violent conflict between these 

* In his pamphlet entitled " The Understanding of Friedrich Froebel," 
Dr. Lange had already advocated Froebel's cause with profound recognition 
and enthusiasm. 



l68 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

two energetic characters and impassioned minds, without 
either, from his own point of view, being in the wrong. 
It pained my heart tliat they could come to no agree- 
ment, and must separate without it. 

My later friendly relations with Dr. Lange have made 
me understand that he could not allow himself at that 
time to be bound completely, when his individuality and 
circumstances drew him in another direction. 

It is known how he has nevertheless given his weighty 
support to Froebel's cause, and how he has done the 
most important service by editing his works. His rela- 
tion to Froebel and his cause is explained by himself in 
the preface to that edition, therefore I need say no more 
about it than the course of these remarks inevitably 
involves. 

Dr. Lange has lent double significance to his advo- 
cacy of Froebel's cause, and served as a protecting shield 
to it in the time of its persecution, and will, I hope, con- 
tribute yet further to fix attention and gain recognition 
from a world generally ignorant of this weighty reform. 

When Middendorfif came for a short time to Marien- 
thal, in the middle of November, this subject was often 
spoken of, and Middendorff endeavored to console and 
tranquillize Froebel in his disappointment. He repeated 
again and again : — 

" Lange is still true ; he does not desert the cause, you 
may rely upon it. He must make for himself a firm place 
in which to work out his own views and bring them fully 
into unison with yours, and then he will also be active for 
your idea and advocate it with full power. You certainly 
wish that every one should follow out his own convictions, 
and independently determine for himself and reach his 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 169 

own place in life ? Lange's probity is the guaranty that 
he will not desert our cause." 

Such assurances from Middendorff, expressed as his 
innermost conviction, contributed to cheer Froebel, 
although he seldom made reference to the matter, but 
silently withdrew within himself, as was his wont at every 
downfall of his hopes and at every pain. 

As the cause stood without sufficient permanent sup- 
port by good and scientifically cultivated men, I shared 
Froebel's wish only too warmly to secure Lange com- 
pletely and practically to our cause ; and at that time, in 
the midst of my fresh enthusiasm for the idea, I some- 
times felt much solicitude as to how the important work 
should be adequately accomplished while it found so little 
solid, intelligent furtherance. 

One evening when we were talking in Froebel's room, 
Middendorff said : " You must found a society, Madame 
von Marenholz, which shall consider the holy cause of 
human education as its apostolate, and undertake the 
great task that falls to women in our time. There is no 
greater one than the perfecting of the human race by an 
education truly worthy of man." 

Froebel added : " Women are to recognize that child- 
hood and womanliness (the care of childhood and the life 
of women) are inseparably connected, that they form a 
unit, and that God and nature have placed the protection 
of the human plant in their hands. Hitherto the female 
sex could take only a more or less passive part in human 
history, because great battles and the political organiza- 
tion of nations were not suited to their powers. But at 
the present stage of culture nothing is more pressingly 
required than the cultivation of every human power for 



lyo REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the arts of peace and the work of higher civilization. 
The culture of individuals, and therefore of the whole 
nation, depends in great part upon the earliest care of 
childhood. On that account women, as one half of man- 
kind, have to undertake the most important part of the 
problems of the time, problems that men are not able to 
solve. If but one half of the work be accomplished, then 
our epoch, like all others, will fail to reach the appointed 
goal. As educators of mankind, the women of the pres- 
ent time have the highest duty to perform, while hitherto 
they have been scarcely more than the beloved mothers 
of human beings. 

" Make them understand (particularly the young wo- 
men) that the sex takes on itself a heavy responsibility 
if it refuses its co-operation in the work of the new edu- 
cation. 'I'ell women to take part immediately, by their 
educational activity, in the destiny of nations ; tell them 
that the recognition of the dignity of the female sex 
depends upon this. The sex must be torn, not only from 
its instinctive and passive, but from its merely personal 
life, in order to live as a conscious member of humanit}^ 
The consciousness of its elevated life-work, and the 
capacity truly to accomplish it, will do more to bring on 
the kingdom of God than all other means. For child- 
hood leads to nature and to God, protects and awakens 
the sense of Divine unity, and will make the whole human 
race capable of a higher unity with God. What higher 
work can there be ? 

" Even the great work in the domain of practical life, 
which falls especially to the male sex, needs the indirect 
co-operation of women ; for they alone can, by their edu- 
cation of men, make them capable of their calling. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I71 

Repeat to your sex the saying of Herder : ' Meditate 
upon and educate (for you alone can do it) a happy 
posterity.'" 

"Will you tell me some means," was my answer, "that 
will change domestic dulness into true, warm enthusiasm, 
and rapturous eccentricity into logical thinking? Then 
I will undertake to form a league of women who will 
battle and work, sacrifice and live, for your educational 
cause. Without that, it is difficult to do much in these 
days. 

" The endeavors I have already made have convinced 
me that only through the co-operation of men can women 
be set in motion persistently for work of universal util- 
ity. I hope, therefore, that the idea will kindle in the 
minds of some virtuous men who are capable of under- 
taking its further development. Passive obedience and 
mechanical activity for universal welfare, as Catholic 
and Protestant nuns now practise them, need not exist 
any longer among the women of the present time, if the 
female sex can be awakened to the consciousness of its 
higher and highest life-tasks, and be active, like men, in 
the service of humanity. But the present day-dreaming, 
pleasure-seeking, and frivolity are increasing, instead of 
a strong sense of duty ; empty superficiality takes the 
place of sound knowledge, so that women are not fitted, 
by their care of childhood, to forming men anew for self- 
sacrifice and self-surrender. 

"Let us also be just. The great majority of women 
are not sufficiently cultivated to understand the idea 
lying at the foundation of your method of education. 
The mere practical carrying-out of the work without the 
idea is not calculated to satisfy the exceptionally superior 



172 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

intellects and lively imaginations among women. Women 
must understand beforehand in how far, even for them- 
selves, an education corresponding to nature and their 
being is an emancipation from the fetters of centuries ; 
and it will make female genius capable of miracles in 
future of which we have now no conception. Where 
this misapprehended genius flutters its wings at present 
it brings only heavy sorrow to the individuals whom it 
affects, while the mass dance through life like gnats. 

" Now the question is, how to make your teachings 
comprehensible by individuals ; and I presume you be- 
lieve that I will do all in my power especially to warm 
up youthful feelings for the cause, which is now my cause 
as well as yours. 

" I will interpret your doctrine, and endeavor to make 
it intelligible, which I can now do better than yourself 
in some respects, for you always set before your hearers 
depths of thought not familiar to them. But, if I am to 
succeed, you must teach me further, hold back nothing, 
and not desert me if I fall to the ground." 

" Good ! " said Froebel, laughing. " I will spare no 
trouble to be intelligible, and you know how willingly I 
hold converse with you ; but time is always wanting." 

It was now almost midnight, and high time to break 
up. It was the blackest of nights ; the November storm 
was howling, and making the windows rattle. Midden- 
dorff brought the not cheering information that the peas- 
ant who was accustomed to accompany me from Marien- 
thal to Liebenstein with his lantern, when I remained 
there to a late hour, was not there, and he wished to 
accompany me himself. The way led through a thick 
wood, against whose trees I had often struck my head in 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 73 

the dark. The little footpath led to a ploughed field, 
in which one often sank to the ankles after a long rain. 
The better way back by the road was quite long. For 
these reasons I was very unwilling to allow Middendorff 
to be my guide. But he persisted. 

When I had prepared myself for the walk by covering 
my head with cloths, as was necessary, and had hitched 
up my skirts and stepped back into the room to bid 
Froebel good night, Middendorff led me up to him with 
these words : " Now look at our Lady von Marenholz in 
this masquerade. Does she not resemble a Schwarz- 
burger peasant-woman .'* " And with that, both the old 
friends shook with laughter. 

A delightful intimacy existed between us all in Marien- 
thal at that time, so that insignificant scenes remain 
strongly impressed upon the memory. 

That summer of 1850 was the last that passed freely 
and serenely in our circle. The next year was to end 
with the great disturbance of the prohibition of kinder- 
gartens. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LAST SUMMER IN LIEBENSTEIN. 

THE second Whitsuntide day of this year (1851) 
was fixed upon for Froebel's nuptials ; and all 
the friends and pupils who found it possible to do so 
hastened to Marienthal to take part in them. Scarcely 
risen from severe illness, I arrived a few days before at 
Liebenstein. 



174 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Everything was already in gay movement at Marienthal, 
in preparation for the impending festival. The pupils were 
arranging various costumes for the masquerade that was 
to take place the evening before the marriage ceremony, 
and were learning their parts for some poetical represen- 
tations and charades. Fraulein Levin, who was already 
housewife and teacher, was occupied with arrangements 
in the house ; and I found Froebel at his writing-table 
in his study. He greeted me with an expression of the 
profoundest satisfaction. 

It was clear how truly happy and pleased he was made 
by the new-found home, which had already formed a cul- 
tivated family circle of young, bright pupils, in quiet, 
undisturbed domesticity. The battle of life lay behind 
him ; he had parted with the world, which did not under- 
stand him, and whose applause he had never sought. 
He now found himself in rural surroundings, which he 
had always desired, and could give himself up, unmo- 
lested by opposition and obstacles, to the further devel- 
opment of his idea, and to the improvement of the 
practical means for it, and could sow the seeds of his 
doctrine in the receptive minds of his female pupils. 
He was assisted and well taken care of by her whom he 
had chosen as the companion of his last days. After a 
life of labor and cares, trouble and combat, he could, to 
all appearances, reckon upon a beautiful, peaceful even- 
ing of life, which would allow him to look with increasing 
clearness upon the development of his cause, and fill up 
the gaps still existing in it. 

But rarely in the life of man are such promises of last- 
ing rest, and happy, peaceful existence fulfilled, most rarely 
for those who have devoted themselves to the service of 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 75 

mankind and to the realization of an idea. This was to 
prove true with Froebel. 

Middendorff soon arrived, the never-failing aid in Froe- 
bel's life, and the sole representative of the family circle 
of Keilhau, whose members, for various reasons, were 
not in accord with Froebel's second marriage. And here, 
also, Middendorff had again undertaken the office he had 
filled on previous occasions, — that of soother and peace- 
maker. In order to spare Froebel as far as possible from 
any discord on the impending days of festi^'ity, he be- 
sought of me, on our first interview, to stand by him and 
to withstand these things wherever they might appear. 

Among the arrangements for the festival, it was decided 
that Middendorff should be the groomsman and that I 
should be the bridesmaid, offices that we both undertook 
joyfully. 

On the evening before the festival, the pupils brought 
in their presents with all kinds of play, with poetic effu- 
sions, songs, and allegorical representations. The apart- 
ments gayly decked with garlands of flowers furnished the 
necessary stage, and joyous gayety inspired young and 
old, and above all Froebel himself, who at the close led 
off in some of the kindergarten plays, in which all present 
took part. 

On the following day. Pastor Riickert (brother of the 
well-known poet Riickert), from the neighboring village 
of Schweina, blessed the marriage union in one of the 
halls of Marienthal, at a flower-decked altar, and spoke 
with deep recognition of Froebel's blessed work. Who- 
ever saw Froebel at this moment of inmost concentration, 
when with the deepest devotion he rose in prayer to God, 
could surely never doubt his religion, and must have 



176 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

received the fullest impression of his true and lofty piety. 
At that moment one could see his heart overflow in thanks 
and praise to Him who " had always guided him like a 
father," as he frequently expressed it. 

He met our congratulations with streaming eyes, and 
after the seriousness of the ceremony had passed was as 
gay and happy as a child, thanking us all most heartily 
for the assistance we had afforded to his cause. Till late 
in the evening the playing and dancing continued, in 
which both Froebel and Middendorff joined in spite of 
their sixty-eight and sixty-nine years. 

No one could have looked upon their participation in 
the youthful amusements with censure or ridicule, so 
touching was its childlike artlessness and genuine dig- 
nity. Only in the absence of personal pretensions, when 
every one gives himself up wholly to the moment, and 
every individual in the whole circle in which he finds 
himself feels in harmony with all, — only there can true 
happiness and noble enjoyment rule the hour, whatever 
may be the outward surroundings. The simplest sur- 
roundings, or the most incomplete in respect to space, 
beauty, and glitter, will not disturb genuine joy. 

The earnest, heartfelt conference under a garret roof, 
lighted by a tallow-candle, is often counted amongst the 
most beautiful memories ! 

The guests at Froebel's nuptials felt nothing of that 
oppressive feeling of tedium which has become proverbial 
at such festivals. Every one went away with the feeling 
that they had spent some hours in childlike gayety. 

On parting, Froebel said to me, " Now we will go to 
work again with new power." And on the next day he 
resumed the instruction of his pupils. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 177 

CHAPTER XIV. 

SECOND VISIT OF DIESTERWEG. 

SOME days after this came Diesterweg, who had been 
prevented from taking part in the nuptials. 

Froebel Hstened most earnestly to our report of what 
we had done for his cause during the last winter in Berlin. 

I had formed a society of women, chiefly belonging to 
an already existing society for the improvement of do- 
mestic service, to which I gave lectures every week upon 
Froebel's educational doctrine, and to which Diesterweg 
belonged as our aid and counsellor. Froebel was par- 
ticularly delighted when I informed him how specially 
his " Mother and Cosset Songs " had awakened the 
interest of the young girls, and excited the earnest desire 
in some of them to become his pupils. 

To accomplish these purposes, often prevented by the 
want of pecuniary means, we agreed to collect a fund for 
kindergarten scholarships, in order to make it possible 
for those who were without means, to attend the institu- 
tion at Marienthal, and at the same time to insure a 
future calling and livelihood. Numerous letters of the 
earlier pupils of Froebel proved how suitable to the 
female mind is the calling of the kindergartener, — as a 
rule decidely more suitable than any other. From these 
communications it appeared plainly how many stunted 
existences had recovered themselves in this occupation 
by intercourse with innocent, happy groups of children, 
which had enabled them to look serenely again upon life 
and hopefully into the future. The expression, "I can 



178 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

scarcely describe how happy I feel in the midst of my 
children," was repeated again and again in the majority 
of these letters. 

In after years I received similar expressions from my 
own pupils, many of whom had occupied themselves with 
the education of young children before they had studied 
Froebel's method. But they had gained an insight through 
that, which made their calling a different one after they 
had spoken the " open, sesame " to child-nature, and at 
the same time learned the means of occupying their 
pupils in the right way. 

" How difficult I found it to be skilful with children, 
to make them obedient and tractable," said one of them, 
" while now, with the greatest ease, by the help of Froe- 
bel's occupations, and following out his educational in- 
structions, I succeed in this and can very soon win over 
and improve the most spoiled and refractory children." 

Another kindergartener said, " If the mothers could 
only learn to understand Froebel's method, and would 
co-operate with us in following it out, how they would 
develop themselves, and how much trouble, care, and 
conflict would be saved on both sides ! " 

Such remarks pleased Froebel more than anything else> 
and also the proposed foundation of the first kindergarten 
in Berlin, which we had prepared the way for by means 
of our society. He recommended one of his earlier 
pupils, Fraulein Erdmann,* to be the directress of it. 

But we could not conceal from him the great difficulties 
which the cause had to overcome, especially in Berlin, 
where, in that time of reaction, everything new and all 

* Fraulein Erdmann conducted our first institution for three years. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 79 

activity in the direction of progress were looked upon 
with distrustful eyes as destructive. 

Diesterweg said : " As long as the rabble rules in Ber- 
lin, the cause will go miserably there. Frau von Maren- 
holz will not see that, and therefore takes much useless 
trouble with people who are not to be made of any use 
to us." 

" I care very little for the direction which men take, 
either politically or religiously," I replied, "if they act 
from conviction, and have honorable souls ; and such 
men are found in every party and even among the rabble^ 
as you call them. We can count among these many a 
one who is neither a bigot, nor a hypocrite, nor a block- 
head, but truly and sensibly has connected his religious 
faith with the letter of orthodoxy. Those in the liberal 
party who acknowledge no religion, and allow themselves 
to be satisfied with the present earthly life, are seldom 
inclined to work for better circumstances in the future. 
The crude materialists we can use least of all ; and the 
scientific who work for the solution of the problems of 
our time with convictiorv and noble love of truth, striving 
to reconcile and unite spirit and matter, after the long 
disunion of centuries under the dualistic theory, are too 
much taken up with their own problems to offer us assist- 
ance in solving ours. 

" This growth of our time, which has appeared both in 
the rabble and among the pietists, will fall to the ground 
by its own unsoundness, and those who make use of it as 
a lever for their own selfish designs will forsake and be- 
tray their party when the influence from above them shall 
flow in another direction. But if by means of the new 
education we should smooth the way for real and true 



I50 . REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

religion, sound and seasonable theories, we must think 
of the children who either grow up in families without 
any religious culture, or are forced into extreme direc- 
tions which do not stand against the knowledge of our 
time, and generally lead either to looseness of religion 
or to one-sidedness and fanaticism. The children who 
grow up under either extreme, need special guidance to 
true religious thinking, and correct knowledge of God. 
Therefore I seek to win over the parents of every party 
to the kindergarten, or at least to conquer their false 
prejudices against it. 

"The religious foundation which the kindergarten gives 
can only be a general one, because of the age of the 
pupils. It prepares the ground for the later seeds of 
doctrine which are to be sown. The good ground will 
then improve many bad seeds and prevent the growing 
of mischief " 

" You are quite right there," said Froebel ; " we must 
receive the children of all parties, of every religious ten- 
dency, and not ask where the parents stand or to whom 
they belong. Every child is a new man, and brings with 
him into the world the possibility of a virtuous man. 
We must combat by our education the perversities of 
parents, and the false, unsound atmosphere of life. If 
we gain in this generation but a small number of chil- 
dren for the right and the good, the next generation will 
double the number, and so on in each succeeding genera- 
tion till all are drawn up to the new stage of develop- 
ment, and there will be still new steps to climb. In 
times which are specially fitted to lead into higher views 
of truth, extremes and caricatures of earlier views will 
always appear. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. l8l 

" The understanding of die old trudi is lost, that is, 
the form in which it was first recognized corresponds no 
longer to the point of view now gained. But what is 
true always remains true. 

"Before, however, the new, higher form of knowledge is 
gained, such perversions appear either as the most crass 
superstition, or as unbelief. But a new revelation of 
truth can appear only if the old one is understood, or 
understood in a higher sense, for God can only unfold to 
us so much of truth as we are in a condition to accept. 
And therefore religious revelations have come into the 
world by degrees and in fragments, as it were, and this 
must go on continuously till w^e have become sufficiently 
ripe to seize the whole truth. In every portion of truth 
the whole is contained in a certain sense, as the macro- 
cosm shows itself in the microcosm, but only to the 
spiritual eye that can perceive it. 

" One side of truth without taking the other side into 
consideration is o?ie-sided ; as if I let a child see only one 
side of a cube, and conceal the other three by my hand. 
The human mind, in course of time, has thus ever devel- 
oped every truth that has come to its recognition in 
one-sidedness, and thereby manifold perversions of it have 
occurred. The perception that there is another side 
places the one first seen in the right light, and thus leads 
to new knowledge. 

" In general, the human mind can seize upon the as- 
pects of truth only one after the other, as it can perceive 
things only in succession. One age must bring one 
knowledge, another another, so that the next truth can 
be seized ; and the last seen always changes the form 
and expression of the preceding one. 



l82 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" This takes place in all the domains of human knowl- 
edge and practical power, and even of faith, — faith, which 
is the seizing of truth by the feelings, while seeing belongs 
to the intellect. Should the knowledge of God and of 
divine things develop in the human mind otherwise than 
knowledge in other domains ? That cannot be, for the 
mind of man is one, and in unity, — mind out of God's 
mind. 

" Knowledge of God, like all knowledge, enters the 
human mind by degrees, from the first presentiment up 
to faith, and then on to sight, till the spirit comes up into 
highest unity or consciousness of God. And it can only 
become conscious of God because the tendency to the 
knowledge of truth is inborn, because the consciousness 
of God is immanent in every human soul, or is, as it 
were, a disposition native to it. 

" Every new stage of human development which occurs 
in its own time as surely as the time itself comes, and 
like the time brings in cyclical consequence its own 
peculiarities, increases the capacity for the understanding 
of truth, and thus broadens the knowledge of God. But 
in each generation also the most various degrees of this 
capacity are found in individuals. The undeveloped 
peasant receives the divine truths of Christianity in a 
different manner from the learned theologian, or the 
thinker standing upon the height of culture, although 
these truths are precisely the same in themselves and 
every one receives them in the same statements. The 
truth cannot change, for it is one and eternal, though 
the degrees in which it is comprehended vary from each 
other. But that manner of viewing things which con- 
ceives the development of humanity as completed, and, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 183 

as it were, repeating itself anew or in greater univer- 
sality, is partial beyond expression. Every succeeding 
generation, according to that view, is only a bad imita- 
tion, an external dead copy, a cast, as it were, of the ear- 
lier image, instead of a living one for the new stage of 
development. 

" Humanity, looked at externall}^, is not seen to be an 
already perfected thing, not an already established, last- 
ing thing, but a continually progressive, growing thing, 
rising from one stage of culture to another, striding 
toward the goal that touches upon infinity. 

" The educator of man can only fulfil his task truly 
when he clearly recognizes the whole of the man and of 
mankind, and knows how to separate the universal, the 
eternal in his being, from the particular form that belongs 
but to one time or person, — or the casual. 

'' The church, our Christian church, would not have 
failed so often in its educational task if it had been mind- 
ful of this irrefragable truth, had taken more into consid- 
eration the tide of development that is always rising. 

" The Absolute alone remains unalterably the same, 
but the Absolute is not to be comprehended by the hu- 
man mind. The Absolute in earthly phenomena is only 
a manner of relation, or relative. Therefore the moral 
model of an epoch may carry within itself the absolutely 
moral or divine, while the outward phenomena belong 
to the men and to the time in which they appear. If in 
reference to Jesus there had not always been this confu- 
sion between what is absolute and divine and what is 
relative and human, which latter belongs to the time and 
to the capacity of comprehension in the actual genera- 
tion, the efficiency and influence of the church would not 
have sunk so low as is at present the case. 



184 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

"The orthodox will hold fast to the antiquated form 
of expression, to the letter which kills ; and the living, 
productive truth which is thus lost for the time is par- 
alyzed to them, for it really is not understood. They 
have the idea, but do not know that they do not under- 
stand it. And the children are the sufferers. Both our 
present rationalists and the religious liberals do away 
with the fundamental idea of Christianity while they think 
they free themselves only from useless accessories to it." 

" I do not agree in that opinion," said Diesterweg ; 
*'it is high time to clear away the old rubbish in the 
church. If we wish to preserve a sound view of religious 
things for our children, if all religion is not to be over- 
thrown, we must throw overboard the theological furni- 
ture of our times. Jesus indeed never dreamed of what 
the preachers would make out of his great, childlike, 
simple teaching. I am entirely in agreement with his 
original, simple teaching; it was addressed to man out 
of the soul, — but away with all that has overlaid it, or 
the high-sounding exegesis! Religion must be — it is — 
the deepest need of the human soul ; I feel this as much 
as those who call me infidel or atheist. The church must 
be — it is — the expression of reverence for God ; but 
every religion and every church must answer to the ac- 
tual stage of the people's culture, and not contradict 
reason. All that is actually, historically handed down 
to us must, from one century to another, be purified 
again and again from the rust and dross which time and 
the errors of individuals have left upon it. Such a work 
of purification the Reformation accomplished through 
Luther, and shall our time be refused a renewed and 
necessary purification of the church from antiquated dog- 
mas and false interpretations of the idea?" 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 85 

" No, not that," answered Froebel ; "but we must not, 
in this work of purification and refining, throw aside the 
peculiar, fundamental idea, as the rationaUsts really do 
in the free-religious societies. God in humanity, human- 
ity from God, — that is and will be the eternal, true, 
Christian idea, which Jesus, living and teaching, revealed. 
Judaism, as the beginning of the monotheistic view, was 
the means of bringing the knowledge of God into the uni- 
verse, or gave rise to the truth of the single divine Mind 
in nature, which is from God. This truth Christianity 
did not annul : we have, on the contrary, retained the 
traditions of the Old Testament in our Holy Scripture. 
We may designate the Mosaic dispensation as the /iisto?y 
of creation, while Christianity is rightly named the his- 
tory of redemption. 

" If the present stage of development is destined to 
infuse the knowledge that man and his being is one with 
nature, and to call upon spirit and nature to be recon- 
ciled by spiritualizing the nature of man, this is no denial 
of Christian truth, — God in hu?72a7iity, Juunanity in God, 
— but only a supplementing of human knowledge of 
truth, and, at the same time, a sanction of Christian 
revelation. 

" What other objects of our knowledge exist but God, 
Man, Nature? 

"What other task can our intellect have than to find 
the relation between these three sole existing objects ? 

" The first thing for the human mind is, to draw the 
synthesis, God in nature, nature from God {\.\\q history of 
creation) ; then follows the synthesis, the Divine Spirit in 
humafiity, the hu7nan spirit from God, or the Christian 
revelation through Jesus (God-man). Now, there is yet 



l86 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

to be drawn the synthesis between hiifnaiiity and nature^ 
and thus to recognize the iri-iinity which makes up the 
result of this connection or unifying of opposites. By the 
solving of this problem, the human mind is to see 
the whole truth, which in itself is one, and could only 
enter the human mind while the three objects of the 
truth to be known, and their relations with each other, 
were proclaimed in three successive epochs. 

" This view not only does not contradict the Christian 
revelation, but can alone place it in its right light, and 
verify it as eternal truth." 

"Do you believe," said Diesterweg, "that you will 
persuade the theologians of this, who will accuse you, 
as they do me, of heresy .'* " 

"I do not dispute with the theologians," answered 
Froebel. "I think I am really as orthodox as them- 
selves. I know Christ, and he knows me : that is 
enough for me. I do recognize that it is historically 
necessary that the old form of truth shall not perish 
entirely, — at least, not till the new form has completely 
developed itself. No view must be entirely lost. The 
history of man would be incomprehensible if it should 
be so ; for each view shows a phase of the general de- 
velopment, and each one proves that, in spite of all the 
obscurations that have arisen out of human error, the 
spirit of truth has at no time quite forsaken humanity. 
The spirit of truth is God's spirit, — the spirit of the 
Father who never forsakes his children. 

" But even the knowledge of truth cannot be bestowed 
upon us, as freedom cannot be bestowed upon us : it is 
only won by strivings of the human mind itself Every 
revelation which God sends into the world, through the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 187 

minds he creates, is a germ which human labor has to 
develop. Even the strifes and the errors of the church 
are not to be shunned : they even will serve to develop the 
germ of truth, and make it understood. Every historical 
crime is an experience which leads towards truth." 

" Evil must come, but woe to him through whom it 
comes, you would say," I replied. " But, while the un- 
avoidable historical battles for truth are being fought, 
the trusting soul in children must not be disturbed ; for 
it carries the truth in itself originally and unconsciously, 
and hence is an ever freshly bubbling fountain in the 
world of humanity, 

" The children find in your kindergarten, for the first 
years of their lives, the first child-church, in which they 
are prepared for their religious life. But they come 
afterwards into the school ; and there the instruction 
that is not adapted to the mind of the child, mars, more 
or less, the good foundation that has been laid, instead 
of its being continued as it should be, to say nothing of 
the injurious influences which at present, from all sides, 
• — even from the family, — are undermining the religious 
consciousness. You should prescribe the right religious 
service for schools, which must carry on that which was 
begun in the kindergarten. The form of worship used 
by adults is not suited to childhood ; and what is called 
divdne service for children in schools is still worse for 
them in many cases." 

1 related to Froebel what I had heard in one of the 
city schools. 

The teacher, after some previous instruction, said : 
" How happy you are, children, that you are accepted 
in the bond of Christians ! Not all children are so 



1 88 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

happy as to grow up in the faith which alone makes 
them blessed. Do you know what children will not go 
to heaven to the Lord Jesus Christ, if they are not con- 
verted?" 

The children answered, " It is the Jews, for they cruci- 
fied Christ." 

" Quite right," said the teacher ; " only he who believes 
the Lord can go to him in heaven. But now there are 
some other children that live far over the sea, in a hot 
country called Africa. These children cannot go to 
heaven if they are not first converted j and do you 
know why?" 

" Because the heathen children are not baptized," 
answered the children. 

" Yes," said the teacher, " because they are not bap- 
tized. How sad it is for a poor mother whose child has 
died ! She cannot be consoled by thinking that her dear 
child is now in heaven with the Lord Jesus." 

And this is called divine service for children ! But 
even if, as we will surely suppose, the above-mentioned 
instance is an exceptional case, the teaching and cate- 
chizing that one generally finds as a rule in the religious 
teaching for children is no divine service for them ; for 
that, above all things, should awaken childlike devotion 
and piety. One need only look at the assembled chil- 
dren to feel convinced that this first requisite of religious 
teaching is not found in the majority of cases. It de- 
pends chiefly upon the personal character of the con- 
ductor of the service how it afiects the children ; but the 
mere biblical stories of either the Old or the New Testa- 
ment are little suited to carry the child's heart up in love 
and devotion to God. Besides, the historical instruction 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 189 

belongs especially to general education, and should only 
be found occasionally, as an example, in the service for 
children. The latter should aim to connect the inward 
and the outer life of the children themselves. 

The church songs are seldom adapted to the under- 
standing of the younger children. Notwithstanding the 
single cases in which the conductor of the children's 
service possesses the gift of making an impression upon 
their feelings, another method is needed to reach the 
desired end. The family, and above all the mother in 
it, should awaken the religious feelings in the earliest 
days, if the divine service that is to come later is to find 
the heart open. Froebel's " Mother and Cosset Songs" 
give suggestions to mothers for this purpose which should 
not be neglected. 

Froebel expressed the deepest condemnation of the 
example I related. 

" As long as mothers," said he, " do not know how to 
administer the priestly office at home for their children's 
benefit, so long will their piety suffer. For the earliest 
childhood formal worship, even connected with the daily 
life itself, the peculiar life of the child, must be occa- 
sional, and, as the opportunity occurs, day by day. Fam- 
ily devotions and the example of pious conduct in the 
family life are the chief means. This our immediate 
forefathers understood better than we do. 

" The first groundwork of religious life is love — love 
to God and man — in the bosom of the family. The 
unifying of all the circles of life, beginning with the 
family, springs from love ; also the love of God, and the 
reverence for all that is highest, springs from love, which 
is the means of union in the whole universe, and brings 



IQO REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

out the highest consciousness of life in the final aim. 
Worship, in a child, is to feel and practise love ; hence 
everything is legitimate which awakens or teaches love. 
What is suggested for this in the ' Mother and Cosset 
Songs ' mothers must carry farther by their own apphca- 
tion of the principle. In the kindergarten we use the 
same means as are employed in the established divine 
service, — pious songs, stories, and prayer ; but these 
must correspond to the age of the children, and must be 
received into the hearts we have made practically sus- 
ceptible by the service to which we have accustomed 
them. The producing of this susceptibiUty is the great 
point for consideration. 

" The development of the child requires the same series 
of steps in the child as the development of the human 
race, — that is, it must be done as God himself has con- 
ducted the education of the human race. We must, on 
the whole, while considering the previous culture, pro- 
ceed in the same path in our educating. First, God the 
Creator, who makes himself manifest in his works. But 
the history of Creation told in Genesis in words cannot 
yet be comprehended by the young child. Instead of 
words he needs his own experience ; his garden-work 
teaches him that the growth of plants does not depend 
upon himself, or upon human power, but that an invisible 
power governs it. This teaches him almost without words 
to find the Creator. Only a slight suggestion is needed 
to awaken the heart of the child to love and thanks to 
the Giver of all good things. By pointing out God's 
works while rambling through the scenes of nature, a 
thousand opportunities offer for worship.* 

* See '' Education b}^ Work," by Madame von Marcnholz-Bulow. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. IQI 

"All that is told in Genesis of the history of Creation 
is lived by the child in his kindergarten education. He 
learns to know the peculiarities and names of the ani- 
mals, to water the ground, to take care of plants, etc., 
and out of all things rises the thought of a living Father 
who creates and animates all. We see this daily in our 
kindergarten.* 

" The mother teaches the child to pray, and also what 
are the claims and commands of the Heavenly Father 
upon the child, and conscience awakens. Then she directs 
his attention to the Christ-child, and he learns how to 
know and to love the virtues of childhood through knowl- 
edge of the Divine, ideal child. He is then prepared for 
the second revelation, God-man, but chiefly by using and 
cultivating his powers in acting according to the com- 
mands of God. 

" Outside of family devotion, the time for Divine wor- 
ship at an appointed hour and in an appointed place, the 
church, connected with doctrinal teaching and the history 
of faith, comes at a riper age, say the tenth year. But 
even for that age our public worship is not appropriate. 

* An example of how logically this kind of religious education works may 
justly find a place here. On some opportune occasion, a kindergartner told 
the children that it is the will of God that those who have greater possessions 
than others shall give those others what they need. A little girl asked her 
companions if they had apples at breakfast-time, such as her mamma gave 
to her, and they replied that they had not. When the child was to be taken 
to the kindergarten the next day, she said to her mother, " Mamma, you 
must give me a great many apples to-day for the children in the kindergarten. 
Auntie says the dear God wishes it because the children have not any ap- 
ples." The request was granted by the mother, and the child divided the 
apples among the children in the kindergarten, as if it were a matter of 
course. There is no difficulty, if it is done in the right way, in producing 
at this early age obedience to the commands of God, such as " Love your 
neighbor as yourself," and thus leading children to practise religion. 



192 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

We might have a similar form, but its contents should be 
adapted to the age. The instruction should have refer- 
ence to the beginning of the unfolding of the intellect ; 
even the text of Holy Writ often needs an explanation 
couched in a childlike form, corresponding to the age, 
such as is seldom found in our churches. Fanaticism 
and confessional disputes do not, of course, belong there 
any more than theological questions and dogmas that are 
difficult to be understood. To awaken love of God and 
goodness, which expresses itself in acting out love for 
mankind, is always the most important task. 

"The connection between church-life and our every- 
day life, carrying out religious thinking into doing and 
acting, having God before our eyes in every-day life, is 
not alone to be taught to children by words in a church, 
but outside of the church by practising them. The wor- 
ship of God is only one-sided, is only a temporary social 
edification, which deserves not the name of worship, if it 
proves fruitless for the inward and outward life of man. 
This we must impress upon our children. 

"Our church festivals have lost their significance for 
the majority of men. We can only give them life again 
when the young come to the understanding of them. 
Other festivals, for which the present age offers many 
opportunities, must be used for religious elevation, even 
for worship outside of the church. 

" The fitting religious service for children has grown 
out of the new education of itself, without any special 
precepts from me. New forms of social life correspond 
to the new spirit which has waked up in society ; let 
us only awaken this spirit in our children, it will work 
creatively in this field also. But in order to do this, that 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I93 

dry, insipid frame of mind must be avoided which is usu- 
ally created in children by incomprehensible word-teach- 
ing and catechizing." 

" It seems to me," I added, " that for the religious ele- 
vation of childhood and youth the beautiful above all 
things — art^ — must co-operate. Music, architecture, and 
painting must contribute to the elevation of mind in wor- 
ship, as they have been used in the Catholic church. 
The degeneration in religious art should not have in- 
duced our evangelical church to cast it out entirely as a 
means of devotion. 

" To youth still in the midst of the life of the senses, 
it is unquestionably necessary that the impressions from 
without should be in harmony with the feelings from 
within. 

^'The want of art-culture in the masses works disturb- 
ingly, in the unmelodious church-singing, for example, 
and surely every one is more easily stimulated to devo- 
tional feeling under a beautifully built Gothic dome than 
in a white-plastered village church. 

"Here, the harmonious development of human gifts 
from childhood up, striven for by you, must bring a 
reform. The artistically cultivated senses of the new 
generation, together with the general elevation of the 
arts, will again restore pure, holy art, as is needed for the 
worship of God, and the true artistic sense waked up in 
the people will know how to select what will serve for 
devotional elevation, and to reject what awakens mere 
sensuous pleasure. Then men will again learn to under- 
stand that beauty and truth flow together into one wher- 
ever each is found in its original purity. The harmony 
which these two heavenly powers, beauty and truth, 



194 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

reached in the Greek world, the future will again unfold 
in the height of their spirituality through the Christian 
idea developed in its full purity, in just so far as the God- 
given tendencies of men are led undisturbed to their 
goal. But how long will it yet be before this goal can be 
reached through the indifference that now prevails upon 
the subject?" 

" The more we individuals work, the sooner the goal 
will be reached," answered Froebel j " only keep good 
courage in the work." 



CHAPTER XV. 

VISIT OF HERR EORMANN. 

IN the list of new-comers to the Baths of Liebenstein 
I found the name of the School-Counsellor Bor- 
mann, of Berlin, and hoped with his presence to see at 
last a Prussian official become more closely acquainted 
with Froebel's cause. 

Through my activity in the cause at Berlin I was re- 
peatedly obliged to go through the experience that, espe- 
cially in the circle of the schoolmen, no one troubled 
himself about it or even knew of its existence. 

The political reaction that spread more and more in 
those years impressed in that circle upon everything 
reformatory the stigma of pernicious innovation and a 
lust for destruction. So much the more important was 
the hoped-for co-operation of Herr Bormann, on account 
of his office of Director of the Berlin Seminary for the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I95 

preparation of female teachers. There are no places 
that can be of more importance to the dissemination of 
Froebel's principles than these institutions, where the 
being of the child and his educational treatment at the 
earliest age should form the groundwork for all teaching. 

But alas ! even now (twenty-five years later) this is not 
the case, and scientific discipline and the methods of 
instruction stand in the foreground, although at present 
the significance and importance of the educational is made 
more and more prominent. 

On the afternoon of that very day Herr Bormann was 
in the kindergarten at Marienthal, and expressed by the 
most profound attention, as well as by appreciative words, 
his warm sympathy and full concurrence in Froebel's sys- 
tem of education. He not only saw the movement-plays, 
but examined all the play-gifts and materials for work, 
among which those for building particularly attracted his 
attention. He was specially impressed with the prepara- 
tion their use gave for later mathematical study, as well 
as for the cultivation of the sense of form. 

On our way back from Marienthal to Liebenstein he 
could not cease to express his astonishment at the dis- 
coveries of Froebel's genius, and at his deep knowledge 
of child-nature. 

" This thing is of the greatest importance, and must be 
made known," he said. " I will write, while I am here, 
an article for the Brandenburger Schulzeiftmg, if you will 
furnish me with material for it." 

The next day Herr Bormann called upon me and took 
away with him notes and manuscripts which were to assist 
him in his work. He agreed with my opinions upon 
Froebel's method, and promised to support my efforts for 



196 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the introduction of kindergartens into Berlin with all his 
powers. I put into his hands all the materials of the 
plays and occupations, and thought I might dare to 
nourish the hope of being able to promote the cause in 
Berlin without encountering too many difficulties. The 
article in the Brandenburg Zeitung, which appeared soon 
after Herr Bormann's departure from IJebenstein, ended 
with these words : " There can be nothing more anti- 
revolutionary under the heavens nor upon the earth than 
Froebel's educational system." 

The article set forth how in Froebel's method, even in 
the play occupations, every opportunity for destructive- 
ness was removed, as every new form was obtained by 
transformations from the preceding one, but not by over- 
throwing or destroying it. 

To those penetrated by Froebel's principles it must be 
obvious how the principle, that is, the recognition of life 
developing itself organically as the norm for the devel- 
opment of the human organism, when made the model 
and guide of education, excludes all violent interference 
and every disturbance of legitimate order ; and, in fact, 
scarcely could a more suitable means be found to pre- 
vent the budding of revolutionary thinking, and to direct 
the striving after natural organic development and orderly 
and legitimate reform, than Froebel's educational method. 
Certainly the application of a given rule or law must, by 
the formative and creative productiveness of the kinder- 
garten pupils, awaken their sense of law and order, and 
call forth from the beginning an opposition to all dis- 
orderly and anarchical action. 

Froebel was made very happy by Herr Bormann's 
recognition and by his article, which Bormann sent him, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1 97 

and both by writing and by word of mouth he promoted 
with joyful hopes the measures he had begun for the 
assembling of teachers in Liebenstein at the end of 
September. Diestervveg and Middendorflf would come 
to it, and the former thought he should be there a few 
weeks earlier. 

Neither Froebel, therefore, nor his friends, were at this 
time — the end of July — prepared for the impending 
blow of the prohibition of the kindergartens in Prussia. 

Upon a journey to Fredericksrode and Inselberg, which 
we took in company with Froebel and his scholars just 
after the arrival of Diesterweg, Froebel was so happy 
and even merry that we all enjoyed ourselves highly, and 
his continued vigorous activity seemed secured. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PROHIBITION OF THE KINDERGARTEN IN 

PRUSSIA. 

IT was on the 9th or loth of August ; the dinner had 
just been removed from the table at the castle of Al- 
tenstein where I was visiting, when the Duke stepped up 
to me with the Vossische Zeitung in his hand, and said, 
" The Froebel kindergartens are prohibited in Prussia." 

At the first moment I thought it was a little raillery, 
such as the Duke sometimes addressed to me about my 
partiality for Froebel's cause. 

" You are jesting," I replied. " How can it be pos- 
sible?" 



198 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Read/' said the Duke, handing me the paper. And 
I read the rescript of the Prussian government of the 7th 
of August, 185 1, which forbade the kindergartens. 

The princely family were almost as much surprised as 
I was at the official prohibition of kindergartens as dan- 
gerous to society. No one was able to find any rational 
ground for it, and we agreed that there must have been 
some special exigency, and that it was a mistake of the 
reactionary measures, that were overstepping all limits at 
that time. 

Startled and disturbed to the greatest degree, I v/ent 
to see Froebel, who had already received the astounding 
news ! He and his wife were deeply shocked, but Froe- 
bel was quiet and collected. The view that there was 
some mistake which might yet be explained, and thus 
lead to the repeal of the prohibition, was much the more 
predominant with him, because the rescript referred to 
the pamphlet entitled " High-Schools and Kindergar- 
tens'," which were designated as socialistic and atheistic, 
and referred to Carl Froebel. 

We considered what was to be done in regard to the 
necessary explanation, and agreed that Froebel should 
write to the Minister von Raumer to beg him to take up 
the case, and to obtain a repeal of the unjust prohibition. 

The next afternoon Froebel brought me the rough 
draft of his letter to the minister, that I might read it 
and suggest any alterations. 

He expressed it as his firm conviction that an examina- 
tion of his efforts, which he requested, would place them 
in the right light ; that the confusion of his identity with 
that of his nephew, the author of the pamphlet quoted, 
would be seen, and that the repeal of the prohibition that 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. I99 

had been published would take place. Froebel also sent 
some of his own writings to Berlin with the letter. 

The conviction that a mistake had been made, and 
that the prohibition would be removed, sustained Froebel, 
and left him the hope which was expressed by myself 
and others, that this occasion would draw the attention 
of the public to his cause, and bring out a more general 
recognition of it. 

When the unexpected answer from the minister ar- 
rived, — "that he must abide by the prohibition, inasmuch 
as the principles expressed could not be assented to, and 
in spite of the confusion of persons, concurrence with 
that objectionable pamphlet consisted in laying at the 
foundation of the education of children a highly intricate 
theory," — Froebel first felt the whole weight of the blow 
which had fallen upon the work of his life. 

It was clear that they would not repeal an ordinance 
once promulgated, and would not give the cause any 
examination, but only thrust it aside. Froebel's method 
did not coincide with the direction of a morbid pietism 
carried to a great extreme, that prevailed at that time, 
and the education of the people was considered the most 
dangerous weapon in the hands of the revolution. 

Froebel's childlike faith in the truth and justice of the 
world struggled against such a treatment of his explana- 
tions, and he still thought there must be means to pro- 
duce an acknowledgment of the value of his ideas and 
efforts, even in official circles. It is indeed so difficult 
for a pure and noble will and deepest convictions to be- 
lieve in indifference, and in intentional perversion of truth 
by party hatred. 

These were days of severe inward conflict for Froebel, 



200 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

which consumed his very life-marrow, but not for a mo- 
ment was he in doubt about his mission or the value of 
his workj of whose future victory he was immovably per- 
suaded. 

At one time, with suppressed feeling, he said, " Now 
if they will not recognize and support my cause in my 
native country, I will go to America, where a new life is 
freely unfolding itself, and a new education of man will 
find a footing." This expression proves how energetic 
he still felt. 

Another time he said, " I will battle for my cause ; 
without battle, truth never breaks a pathway ; I must not 
let it be struck dead by being shoved away silently. I 
will apply directly to the king of Prussia ; he has a sense 
of the great and noble in spite of everything, and a mind 
to appreciate my ideas. You must give my petition to 
him yourself, Madame von Marenholz, as soon as you 
return to Berlin, and explain the whole affair to him at 
once." 

He did not speak of this plan generally, and would not 
let its probable want of success under present circum- 
stances weigh with him. 

The letter which he addressed to the king, to petition 
for a new examination of his cause, was written with 
touching simplicity and in truly childlike confidence, as 
was the custom in earlier days, when the children of the 
land turned to the father of the land with true reverence. 
Some changes and abbreviations, chiefly in regard to the 
form, seemed to me indispensable, and Froebel allowed 
me to make them. After this was done he said, on read- 
ing the sketch, " The old f?ian, as you let me be called 
there, must not be said, for years have not made me old," 
— a naive expression for the eternal youth of the spirit ! 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 20I 

When afterward in Berlin, at an audience of Queen 
Elizabeth, I gave Froebel's petition to the king, I 
scarcely felt any confidence, in spite of his acceptance of 
it, in the success of the step. The feeling that prevailed 
at the court at that time was too much in opposition to 
the hope expressed by Froebel for the renewal of human 
society by a correct education corresponding to the ac- 
tual stage of culture, to lead to the desired result. 

The assignment of the subject, on the part of the king, 
to the Minister von Raumer himself, which took place 
later, with the direction to comply with the petition for 
closer examination of the cause, could only lead to an 
undesirable issue. 

Although in those days of fear of whatever was new, ris- 
ing to madness, — a fear which in every form was a " red " 
spectre, I had found sufficient occasions of sad experi- 
ence, and in my advocacy of Froebel's cause had run 
the risk of being myself taken for a "■ red," I was in 
the highest degree astonished by the views which I came 
to learn in my conversations with the minister. I saw 
that party fanaticism struck the mind with perfect blind- 
ness, so that the only means of salvation offered against 
the evils of the time were looked upon and thrown aside 
as dangerous poison. 

There was nothing to be done but to wait for better 
days, when the light of reason should overcome the dark- 
ness that had spread abroad, and even Froebel's inno- 
cent plays for children should be freed from the interdict 
that had struck them down. The explanatory newspaper 
articles, coming from all sides, the wit of the Kladder- 
adatsch about the supposed danger of the kindergartens 
with their " three-year-old demagogues " ; praise of them 



202 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

in places where such institutions had been founded, sym- 
pathizing expressions from pedagogical authorities, — 
nothing could then take the odium from the cause. The 
circumstance, that in many confiscated letters of persons 
politically compromised, the importance of kindergartens 
was mentioned as a new foundation for an improved edu- 
cation of the people, was used in official circles to justify 
the prohibition as a correct one ; and this fact must also 
have served with the king to palliate the error that had 
occurred. 

The last word of the minister was : " I shall never 
allow the establishment of Froebel's kindergartens." 

" But will the authorities prevent families using Froe- 
bel's materials of play for their children before they send 
them to school ? " I inquired. 

" No, that is not in our power," was the answer. 

" Now, then," said I, " I hope the founding of family 
kindergartens will afford you the proof of how unjustly 
the cause has been judged, which, in spite of its inoffen- 
siveness, holds within itself a deep meaning." 

And a family kindergarten, the first institution of that 
kind, was opened in the course of that year by our little 
society in Berlin, and given into the charge of a pupil of 
Froebel's, Fraulein Erdmann. But much as the spread of 
this blessed influence of the kindergartens was hindered 
and in part prevented by the prohibition, yet the subse- 
quent more rapid diffusion of them might be due to the 
very prohibition itself. The cause was torn from its ob- 
scurity, and thereby gained an importance which it might 
not have gained otherwise. Even evil must serve the 
good. 

The proscription of the government made the cause 



REMINISCENCES OE FROEBEL. 203 

now the darling of the party of the extreme liberals, as 
such. Therefore for a long time it appeared in a false 
light and appears so still, even at the present time, with 
regard to its still quite misunderstood religious tendency. 

Here again something has been thrown away whose 
right use is suited as nothing else is to work against irre- 
ligion by an early religious groundwork laid in the heart 
of the child. Thus is the cause of the new education 
more or less associated in the public mind with radical- 
ism, although it has not the least agreement with any 
radical tendency. 

In i860 there was a public abrogation of the prohibi- 
tion of the innocent kindergartens, but the mistrust 
roused against it in many quarters has never been en- 
tirely removed. The repeal was to me a greater satisfac- 
tion because my unremitting endeavors, particularly with 
the minister of the " new era," had helped to bring it 
about. 

The great joy felt by the votaries of the cause at this 
late justification of it was, however, shadowed by the 
fact that Froebel was no longer alive to enjoy the triumph 
of the expiation. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

VISIT OF VARNIIAGEN VON ENSE. 

BEFORE Froebel had received the adverse decision 
upon his last petition, and was again and more 
deeply grieved by it, some bright sunbeams had pene- 
trated the oppressive atmosphere of the Marienthal and 



204 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Liebenstein circles. The visits of many distinguished 
persons brought him recognition and concurrence ; and 
there occurred in September of that year the long- 
prepared convention of teachers, to whose judgment 
the public prohibition gave enhanced significance. 

Among other well-known persons living at that time 
in Berlin, I had excited the interest of Varnhagen von 
Ense for Froebel's efforts, which were often a subject of 
discussion at our interviews. 

The increasing discouragement which took possession 
of the liberal thinkers in that time of reaction, after the 
sad experiences which followed the hopes of 1848, which 
showed that the most ideal efforts for political reform 
are wrecked upon the selfishness, coarseness, and rough- 
ness of the masses, together with the irritation which was 
produced by those measures of the authorities that ob- 
structed all progress and all enlightenment, turned the 
minds of many thinkers to the necessity of a better edu- 
cation of the people. Diesterweg's influence and his 
demands in this regard, which had made him a martyr 
in his post of usefulness, had led some politicians who 
honored his public-spirited activity to regard the field of 
education as the one above all others in which was to 
be gained the right foundation for universal reform and 
amelioration of morals. 

When I once expressed to Varnhagen that the true 
friends of the people — the liberals in the best sense of 
the word — ought to turn their eyes, during this time of 
reactionary measures, to other fields of action besides the 
political one, and especially to look at Froebel's work, he 
said : "We will not quarrel about whether the hen or the 
egg came first, but in the present circumstance it is not 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 205 

to be thought of to bring forward anything new in any 
field whatever. Do not deceive yourself; we are already 
in the beginning of things which are to come. After 
the violent gagging which is now going on, things will 
first grow much worse. It must be so ; no new epoch 
is born without storm and misery. The tatterdemalion 
from above wakes up the tatterdemalion from below, 
and the wild beast in humanity will first exhibit itself. 
It is a blessed thought to me that at my years I shall 
not have to live through these coming battles," 

" But," I rejoined, " after the storm comes better 
weather. Shall we not strew the seed which will grow 
then, when its fruit is to be the condition for life (Lebens 
bedingung) } " 

*' Indeed we must," said Varnhagen. "You know I 
believe undoubtingly in the progress of humanity. The 
good and true will and must conquer, and even what is 
evil must smooth the way for them. But the historical 
Augaean stable is not so quickly cleansed as you think. 
It will be longer than I feared before that is done. I 
see that in the circumstances of to-day. But it shall not 
on that account be said that all good, whatever name it 
takes, is not to be furthered to the best of our ability. 
Even the better education — the real education — of the 
people (which we have not yet) must be silently prepared 
for, without the help of the ruling powers, — indeed, 
against their will. Otherwise every new seed will be 
trodden under foot." 

" But," said I, " in the circle of the rulers, and amid 
their wealth of influence, are there no minds which have 
the insight to perceive that the universal and especially 
the moral culture of the people, in the most various 



2o6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

degrees, is the only radical means against anarchy and 
destruction ? " 

" No, not at present, in those benighted circles where 
imbecility hinders all free outlook," replied Varnhagen. 
" Whom the dear God will ruin he strikes blind. As yet 
I cannot judge," he continued, '"how far Froebel's educa- 
tional idea is calculated to work determinately upon the 
general human development. After what you have told 
me of it, I might assume that such importance does be- 
long to it ; but see how slowly and unobservedly the 
earlier educational systems broke their way, although 
every votary of each thought the salvation of the world 
depended upon it, and fought for it with enthusiasm. 
What Froebel wishes to effect lies in the far future, since 
his education has to do especially with the new-born 
generation, and through it with the following ones. A 
consideration of oiir posterity is the holiest duty ; but 
the present time has so much to do for itself, the nearest 
future is so shrouded in darkness, that little power and 
time are left for educational improvements. When your 
house is burning over your head, you do not think of the 
improvement of the interior. Therefore you must not 
expect to awaken a general enthusiasm for the cause for 
which you work enthusiastically yourself." 

"All that is quite true," I said ; "and I do not in the 
least expect there will be a general enthusiasm for a 
thing whose whole importance can never be seen but by 
a few. I know also that ' the presiding spirit is not in 
haste,' as Hegel says. But I believe a new idea must 
strike fire, if only in individuals. Froebel's idea requires 
our sex — the activity of women — for its success. Can 
they lay their hands in their laps in a time of fermenta- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 207 

tion and transition to new social forms, and look idly 
upon the general conflict? That cannot and must not 
be ; and there are signs enough at hand to proclaim that 
there is a fermenting and working in women's souls now. 
The perverse and ridiculous desires for the ' emancipation 
of women ' in our time, together with their false preten- 
sions, testify to the aberration of newly awakened powers. 
As soon as these are led into the right path, the disorder 
will cease ; the pretensions which genuine worth never 
makes will be silenced. All eyes will then be turned to 
the right way, — that is, to the path pointed out by God 
and nature ; but the voice of manly authority must 
direct. 

"On that account, I ask the men of mind whom I 
meet to accept our educational cause, and to bring 
Froebel's idea into recognition. Means are offered by 
it for the redemption of the female mind, since the un- 
fettering of the mental powers is demanded for this work 
in a way that has never been tried. The very highest 
demand of our time upon women is to work at this prob- 
lem of a new education : this is their appointed part in 
the present struggle for culture. 

" If Rahel were living, she would do me justice ; she 
would help me with her deep insight into human nature, 
her great love of childhood. Her words, ' Not the culti- 
vated insight so much as the cultivated 7m'// is the condi- 
tion required for moral worth,' express in brief what 
Froebel's education is specially striving for, — the perfect 
development of human energy." 

The reference to Rahel immediately called out deep 
emotion in Varnhagen. He said, with increased feeling : 
"I must become acquainted with your Froebel ; and, 



2o8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

SO far as I can, I will say the word for him. In 
the coming summer, I will take my vacation in Thu- 
ringia and go to Liebenstein, that you may take me to 
him." 

And so it was. At the end of August, 1851, Varnha- 
gen came to Liebenstein with Fraulein Assing and old 
Dora. 

This visit was greeted with joy by the Princess Amely 
as well as by Froebel, to both of whom I had commu- 
nicated Varnhagen's intention. The Princess Amely 
longed, with the vivacity and eagerness of eighteen 
years, for intercourse with masculine minds, and fol- 
lowed the movements of the time with ardent interest. 

" You will bring Herr von Varnhagen immediately to 
us when he arrives," she exclaimed, when we met at tea 
at the castle, on the evening before his arrival. 

When I informed Varnhagen of this invitation, he said, 
"We must go to Froebel first." And we went, on the 
afternoon of the same day that he arrived. 

We found the pupils with some children in front of 
the Marienthal house, playing " Would you know how 
does the farmer ? " The play pleased Varnhagen, who 
hummed the melody to himself for a long time after- 
wards. Froebel's play-gifts were spread out upon the 
long table, and were thus already at hand, after the first 
greeting, for an explanation of the method. 

After Froebel had expressed the thought that "only 
the history of the human race could offer the right guide 
for studying the nature of the mind, and for guiding 
it correctly from childhood up," he went on to say : 
"Apples were given in Paradise to the childhood of 
humanity, as the earliest means of knowledge. I also 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 209 

have apples here for the same purpose, — the balls of 
the first gift, clothed in rainbow colors, but not of a kind 
to be eaten. 

" In the beginning of human culture, when experience 
had to be of a palpable nature, and the pleasure of the 
senses and its results were to be tasted materially and 
experienced practically, the apples had to be eaten. 
That is no longer necessary. We can spare our children 
the details of experiments which mankind has passed 
through, if we educate them aright. They must indeed 
become wise through their own experience, but they need 
less rough experience ; they no longer need to spoil their 
stomachs with sour apples. These balls are, as it were, 
ideal apples which satisfy the higher needs of nourish- 
ment felt by the mind, and not by the palate, and impress 
the mind through the eyes." 

Varnhagen laughed heartily, and said, " Do you mean 
that you have to offer to human nature, developed and 
refined by thousands of years of culture, the means used 
for the development of the mind in the beginning of its 
existence ? " 

"That is it," answered Froebel ; "we may restrain the 
sins which spring from the animal appetites when we 
direct the regards of the child to something that satisfies 
his higher ideal or spiritual wants, — wants, which he as 
well as they bring into the world with him, and which 
crave satisfaction from the earliest infancy as much as 
the body desires nourishment. 

"The spiritual unconsciousness into which the child 
is born is changing into conscious being from the first 
moment of life. The incentives which are needed for 
awakening the powers of the soul go out from the exter- 



2IO REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

nal world ; and these must not be left to chance at this 
stage of human development. Chance is blind ; educa- 
tion is to act with its e3^es open. It was necessary to 
bring light upon the great chaos in the beginning of Cre- 
ation, and God said, ' Let there be light ! ' Chaos still 
encompasses every human eye that wakps into life, for a 
chaotic world veiled in darkness surrounds the new-born 
child. The task of education is to bring light into this 
darkness, order into this chaos. 

" But how shall this be done ? The senses are to be 
awakened as the organs of the mind, and not as the 
organs of mere sensuous pleasure, or of mere desires, as 
in the animals. Yet that is what happens if we aim at 
bodily nourishment alone without giving food to the 
mind. This need never happen to the child of the pres- 
ent day. 

" Now I wish to find the right forms for awakening the 
higher senses of the child. I must ask the whole organ- 
ism of creation, the whole universe, for them. I must 
go back from the particular to the general, which con- 
tains the particular, and furnishes the typical or funda- 
mental form for the manifold phenomena of creation. 
Then come the properties which are common to all 
things, and without which there is nothing knowable. I 
must seek objects in which the universal properties of 
form, color, size, weight, movement, etc., are to be per- 
ceived one by one, and strikingly shown. 

" For this purpose I have not only forms for the child's 
eyes, which are to make him acquainted with the outward 
world that surrounds him ; I have symbols which unlock 
his soul for the thought or spirit which is innate in ever}^- 
ihing that has come out of God's creative mind. If the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 211 

ripened mind is to know and understand this thought, 
its embodied image must make an impression upon the 
yet unconscious soul of the child, and leave behind it 
forms which can serve as analogies to the intellectual 
ordering of things. 

" What symbol does my ball offer to the child ? That 
of unity. Out of unity as form proceed all phenomena, 
whether it is an original cell or a seed. And everything 
must in its development strive again for unity or com- 
pleteness ; — the flowers and the fruits, the heavenly 
bodies and the organs of the human body (whose head 
is in the form of the ball), all proceed according to the 
law of the sphere. Unity as spirit, absolute unity, is 
God himself; the universal spirit goes forth out of the 
All and returns back to the All. In God ' we live and 
move and have our being.' We are spirit out of God's 
spirit, we are children of God, and therefore capable of 
fmding and recognizing in all the works of God, within 
certain limits, our own mind and God's mind. 

" Unity ! To know God is to know the highest, is the 
chief end of all knowledge, and at the same time is the be- 
ginning of all knowledge. The beginning must answer 
to the end as the end (the result) must answer to the 
beginning, if completeness is to be reached. The begin- 
ning of the development of mind is unconscious being, 
the end is conscious being. These opposites are con- 
ditional upon each other (they are relative, not absolute) ; 
the steps of the whole development, or ^>r<77£'///^ conscious- 
ness, lie between and unite beginning and end, that is, the 
unconscious being of the child and the conscious being 
of the mature man. Therefore must the perceptions of 
unconscious childhood and the conceptions and ideas of 



212 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the conscious mind of man also correspond. Do you 
agree with me ? " 

Varnhagen expressed his assent. 

" Am I not right, then, when from the very beginning 
I create such impressions upon the child's mind through 
material or concrete things, which, according to the anal- 
ogy that prevails in the universe between spirit and body 
and between thought and its embodiment, are the proto- 
types of conceptions and ideas in the spiritual order of 
things ? 

" The child's mind unconsciously seeks, must seek, 
according to its organization, for the conditions upon 
which its development depends. He finds these con- 
ditions, and by degrees fulfils them by the help of the 
things surrounding him ; he receives impressions from 
the properties of things when his eye perceives in them 
form, color, size, number, movement, etc. But the great 
abundance of these things which present themselves 
chaotically to his unpractised senses makes the earliest 
work of the human soul a diflftcult one, and the impres- 
sions received are therefore indefinite and confused. 
Now what else is the education of the child's mind from 
the beginning than to make easier to it the task laid upon 
it, the perception of single things ? 

" The greater the progress of culture, the more various 
and numerous are the particulars of the things around 
us, — the more difificult the perception and knowledge of 
them becomes, — the greater is the task of individuals 
in order to attain to knowledge and power. Hence bet- 
ter and earlier preparation is necessary. This is obtained 
when the development of the mind is spared from indi- 
rect ways, when the senses as organs of the mind are fur- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROECEL. 2x3 

nished from the beginning with a guide to knowing, and 
when the single things out of the mass come before the 
eyes. And surely those things which produce the most 
significant and decided impression of common properties 
must be chosen for this purpose in an orderly manner. 

" If the later instruction must select, arrange, and dis- 
pose its material, then even much more carefully is it 
necessary to do it for these first perceptions of the child, 
which are to be the source and foundation of all later 
reception and learning. 

"Only those who accept these thoughts as correct 
ones can understand what is the aim of my educational 
method." 

*' But how do you know," said Varnhagen, " that the 
right beginning has been found, and that the child's mind 
has not been forced to something foreign to it which works 
disturbingly rather than usefully ; perhaps, indeed, awaken- 
ing it too early, and therefore harmfully.''" 

"That is just what I wish to prevent, the artificial 
ripening of the fruit from which our generation is now 
suffering in the highest degree," answered Froebel, with 
eagerness. " Do you not understand that it is not 
in our power to constrain the yet unconscious mind ? 
The nursling does not yet understand words ; how then 
shall I force him to look at my balls or any other object? 
He looks around and receives impressions from what he 
sees repeatedly. Things impress themselves on his power 
of conception gradually ; not, perhaps, in their totality and 
their parts, but in their universality, by their properties. 
That is a process which we can neither prevent nor bring 
about. It is the way designated by Nature herself to 
promote the development of the mental tendencies. 



214 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

*' Now can this process be disturbed by having the 
unconditional beginning of all knowing, both for the in- 
stinct of the unconscious being and for the conscious and 
thinking mind, presented in a distinct form and sepa- 
rately, instead of being left in the confusion of the mani- 
foldness of things ? Unity is always the beginning. I 
must have the perception of one before I can say two ; 
and an ordered series of individualities is more easily 
counted than a confused mass of individualities. 

" For example, will not the child's eye perceive colors 
more easily if he looks at the three primary colors of my 
balls one after the other, and then at the combinations of 
colors made by the union of any two primary colors (as is 
shown here by the green ball between the blue and the 
yellow), than if it is forced to discern colors in the many- 
tinted objects around him, in disorderly confusion ? 

" The necessity of simplifying the material of study in 
schools, in order to make it easier for the children to 
learn, to bring more clearness into the subjects of the 
instruction and therefore into their heads, is acknowl- 
edged. But the mind of the new-born child does not 
wait till the school period to use its organs of sense, and 
to perceive things that immediately surround it. The 
development of the mental powers begins with the first 
drawing of the breath upon earth, and ends with the last, 
and the natural and orderly support of this development 
is education. 

" Our mind is an organism at whose command are a 
multitude of organs by which it makes itself acquainted 
with life. These organs ripen and unfold themselves 
gradually like other material organisms, and their more 
or less complete unfolding depends upon conditions that 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 



215 



correspond to their nature. These conditions I think 
I have found. They are chiefly those of development : 
first those of cosmic development and then the fulfilling 
of the need of the human mind to make its inward na- 
ture objective in the material World, and to represent it 
in and by material." 

" That is to say," I interrupted, " imitating God's world 
in miniature so to organize material that it satisfies the 
human need (the work of practical life) or realizes a 
thought of beauty (art), or facilitates knowledge (sci- 
ence), -and thus forms in the actual that which makes the 
subject-matter of human life, and all this according to 
God's law of formation, or the laws of creation." 

" Yes, quite right," said Froebel, and continued : " peo- 
ple may try as much as they please, the child's mind 
unfolds and ripens to the understanding of words only 
by and through concrete things, but they must be used 
consciously if the aim is education. Nothing — abso- 
lutely nothing — in the education of man must be left to 
mere accident. But the child must reproduce with mat- 
ter what he has received into himself from the eternal 
world, in order to understand it. The child, that is, the yet 
undeveloped being, needs form {Bild), and form created 
by itself, in order to comprehend thought, or the intellec- 
tual, in order later to receive it ' in spirit and in truth.'" 

Varnhagen replied : " The thought of such a discipline 
of the human mind in the unconscious stage of life is 
very illuminating to me. It appears to me to be of great 
significance, even though its carrying out is not perfectly 
clear to me. I have already been in some degree ini- 
tiated into your guiding principles by Madame von Maren- 
holz, and have seen some of your materials j and I con- 



2l6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

cur in the fullest measure with all that I have seen. The 
discoveries of your genius claim my entire admiration. 
But I seek in vain for a reason for the prohibition of the 
kindergartens by the government. Even the mad and 
childish fear of all popular education, as bringing danger 
and destruction, cannot be taken as a reason. Your ed- 
ucation has to do with the last born generation, who can- 
not possibly cut off the heads of the present, and these 
men do not trouble themselves about the distant future. 
The prohibition is indeed an incomparable folly ! But 
you need not fear ; the time of recognition will come, 
and all the sooner precisely by means of this prohibition. 
Persecution will exalt your cause, and the more so, the 
more foolish and groundless persecution it is. They un- 
dertook, by it, to give a thrust to the rising socialistic 
ideas." 

It was time to break up, as we were to go to the 
Duchess Ida's to tea, so the continuation of Froebel's 
remarks was postponed until the next afternoon, when he 
promised to come to Liebenstein. 

" That is a new Pestalozzi," said Varnhagen ; " he 
lives and moves in his cause, and knows nothing of per- 
sonal feeling. He is a peculiar phenomenon, especially 
in our time, so completely concentrated in himself, so 
free from all the influences of the world. Truly a re- 
markable man ! " 

He spoke in the evening to the Duchess also, of the 
impression he had received, and found her in full accord 
with the good hopes he connected with Froebel's educa- 
tional method. The liberal expressions of my friend, 
the sensible and lovely Princess Amely, pleased Varn- 
hagen exceedingly, and he said, " Frau von Marenholz 
was not altoiiether innocent of that." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 217 

On the next morning we visited the Liebenstein kin- 
dergarten, where Varnhagen watched all the plays and 
work of the children for more than an hour. He said, 
among other things, " Here also the meaning and spirit 
of the method must work by degrees through the rough 
material. It is in the kindergarten as in the history of 
nations and their culture." 

" Yes, indeed," I replied ; "the spirit of the thing can only 
be expressed completely by its praxis when this is really 
comprehended by the conductor of the kindergarten ; 
and yet the method works in its own way fully in cor- 
respondence with the child's nature by intuition, even 
without that ! The spirit of the child's action is trans- 
formed into flesh and blood, because the action corre- 
sponds to the -inner unconscious demands. This ever- 
repeated forming of parts into a whole, which hovers 
before the child's fancy, this ordering and creating, infal- 
libly awakens the sense of organizing. This being fun- 
damentally occupied with one and the same objective 
action excites to investigation ; and the impulse after 
truth, innate in man, must awake early, if the child comes 
to the knowledge of the elementary truths of cause and 
effect through his own experience in the handling of ma- 
terial things, even if at first only by small physical experi- 
ments, — such as this little one is making, for example, 
with his blocks, which he has not placed regularly upon 
each other, but askew, so that his building falls over. 

" It is most desirable that this view should make its 
way, — namely, that this impulse of seeking after truth is 
the only true foundation of real intellectual culture. Only 
the love of truth can make knowledge living and fruit- 
ful which otherwise remains dead. Without an earnest 



2l8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

love of truth there can be no religion, which each makes 
his own and in his own way when he elaborates what is 
given to him as an endowment, and transmutes it into 
his own spiritual property." 

*' Yes 1 " said Varnhagen, " if we had but progressed so 
far ! But I freely admit that correct education brings us 
nearer to this still very distant goal. It is a condition 
of all progress that blind obedience to authority become 
a seeing one, and that every one should arrive at a degree, 
at least, of intellectual independence. The light of the 
spirit has illuminated only the smallest part of our earth- 
ball, and even in this part there is still a dark mass 
which has not yet answered the call, 'Let there be 
light ! ' " 

" I think there is no better means," was my reply, "to 
get rid of the eclipse of sun and moon in human history 
than a just and correct human education." 

Varnhagen was especially amused by a little four-year- 
old girl who, with childlike earnestness and shining eyes, 
always pressed before the others when there was anything 
to show or to explain. 

" These social games really give play to the individual 
peculiarities,'* said Varnhagen ; " that little thing will 
make a perfect coquette. She thinks everything re- 
volves about herself." 

" Yes," said I ; "in such social conditions every too- 
sharply prominent peculiarity, that is, every fault, receives 
a check and is reduced to its proper limits, but without 
destroying the peculiarity in its development. People 
cannot believe how much the education of children, 
even at this age, is facilitated by a social condition thus 
controlled, and requiring the perroimance of duties." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 219 

Varnhagen was so pleased with his view of the kinder- 
garten that he begged me to give a present, in his name, 
to the kindergarten teacher, whose " zeal and gentle 
manners touched " him, as he said. 

Madame Froebel also came in and answered some of 
his questions about the method. 

As we were driving, in the afternoon, through the 
" grinding-grounds " near the village of Steinbach, and 
Varnhagen saw the wretched existence of the families of 
the knife-grinders, he said : " Your kindergarten, through 
the preparation it affords for all kinds of work, and 
through its power of promoting activity, would after a 
time make possible an easier and better mode of gaining 
a livelihood than this, and thus be the best remedy for 
poverty and misery." 

Towards evening Froebel came to Liebenstein and 
took up again the subject of his method. Afterwards we 
had a long talk about many other things. 

Varnhagen said : " I share your theory of regarding 
the universe from the point of view of an uninterrupted 
organic development; and I look upon the history of 
the world also as an organic process, which shall reach 
a goal appointed by God. Your thought that, according 
to this theory, the education of your pupils should con- 
sist, from the beginning, of plastic formation, according 
to the law lying at the root of all organic things, is en- 
tirely new to me, but I must recognize it as completely 
correct. That all development progresses according to 
law, is indisputable. This law corresponds to the all- 
penetrating spirit of the world, and must everywhere, 
from the smallest to the greatest, be in agreement. That 
has already been more or less recognized in various phil- 



220 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

osophical systems. And the still unconscious mind of 
man in childhood cannot do without this development 
according to law. Give it material, and show it how to 
make material forms according to a rule corresponding 
to this universal principle of law, or how to connect 
parts into a whole, and thus the way and method of or- 
ganic formation will be in a measure prefigured. 

"That is very illuminating; and one can understand 
that that which is original in every human soul can be, 
in a certain sense, satisfied by it, and even that originality 
can be called forth by it. But how much is this original- 
ity overgrown and supplanted — yes, even smothered — 
by w^hat has been inherited from parents, grandparents, 
and ancestors ! Indeed, it should be the task of true 
culture to cut down and work over these overgrowths, 
and to favor the growth of individuality and originality. 
But how rarely is that done ! And can it ever be done 
completely ? " 

Froebel, highly pleased at Varnhagen's deep interest, 
replied : " As soon as we understand the complete de- 
velopment of the human being, even within the limits 
set upon our planet, this becomes possible. Humanity 
as such, as the thought of God, can only then appear in 
its full essence (Wesenheit). But every thought of God 
must have its full and complete realization, — so also 
the thought of humanity, as it has come into the world 
through Christ. The precept to imitate Christ would 
be without meaning, if this imitation — I mean human 
perfection on earth — were not possible, and were not 
some time to be fully and universally realized." 

"And that," I interposed, "by every individual, in the 
form of his own individuality. The being of man as an 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 221 

individual can only appear in an individual form, in 
which the common humanity is reflected in a particular 
way belonging to the individual alone. And humanity 
truly exists as a being, as an organism, only when the 
individual originality is expressed completely and en- 
tirely in each individual." 

" You must also add," said Froebel, " that humanity, 
as we understand the idea of it, belongs to the earth, 
and must therefore rise to its attainable perfection within 
the limits which are affixed to it as an organism." 

"That would be the promised apotheosis of the earth," 
said Varnhagen. " That is still far distant, if we con- 
sider our actual circumstances. But you are perfectly 
right. Without a popular education adapted to our time 
we cannot progress even to the nearest goal. This edu- 
cation must be a practical one, which, as far as possible, 
shall make every one independent in the life of actuality. 
Hail to you, if you smooth the way to that for us." 

Froebel replied : " Certainly the nearest goal and the 
initial step is to be considered first, for we have to edu- 
cate for our time. Yet only he can be an educator of 
men, in a high sense of the word, who understands the 
nature of man in the past, present, and future. Without 
knowing the final goal of human destiny, — or, at least, 
having a presentiment of it, — we cannot take the first 
steps towards it. The farthest and the nearest, like the 
greatest and the least, are in connection ; and never and 
in no place should this connection of all things be left 
out of account." 

This lively conversation was kept up until late into the 
night ; and both Froebel and Varnhagen felt in an ex- 
alted mood, and were mutually pleased by knowing each 



2 22 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Other. Froebel gave Varnhagen, at his departure, a copy 
of his " Education of Man " for a keepsake ; and when 
Varnhagen went away the next day, he said his stay at 
Liebenstein and his acquaintance with Froebel formed 
the bright point in his journey of the year. 

When I went to see Froebel on the afternoon of Varn- 
hagen's departure, to carry his last remembrances, I found 
him surrounded by a little circle who were accustomed to 
assemble there on Thursday afternoons. 

He was busy at the moment in explaining his educa- 
tional doctrine to a strange gentleman. The expression 
of malicious irony and vaunting self-conceit in this rather 
young man displeased me immediately, and that displeas- 
ure increased during the whole conversation. 

Froebel, plunged in his own thought, found no time to 
fasten his eyes sharply upon his auditor, but, with artless 
zeal, brought his cause before him. 

He was saying : " We see that all development of 
every kind is connected with conditions upon w^hose 
fulfilment or non-fulfilment the consequences depend. 
That is true in the material world in the organisms of 
nature, and is equally true in the intellectual world in 
respect to the development of man, as is expressed in 
the history of this development, — the world's history. 

" But these conditions, by which all development is 
determined, depend fundamentally upon a law according 
to which the essence at the basis of every organization 
comes forth and is made manifest. This first law of all 
phenomena is the law of opposites. This is the endow- 
ment of every essence that comes into existence, and 
particularly man called into consciousness. He, in spite 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 223 

of bis inner relation to God and nature, stands as an 
individual essence in the relation of opposite to the uni- 
verse, or nature, on the one hand, and to unity, or God, on 
the other. The law of connection is given at the same 
time with the law of opposites. Connection (joining by 
union of members, or articulation), or the balancing of 
all existing objects, is the ground-law in the universe, in 
the visible and invisible, the material and intellectual, 
world. 

" Everything in the organic world subsists in the mem- 
bership of its parts in a whole. These parts always stand 
in an opposite direction from each other, and are con- 
nected or bound together by a common medium ; for 
example, the leaves of the flower or the stem of a tree, 
which connects the root with the crown. The limitation 
in space of every visible phenomenon or thing condi- 
tions the opposite by the relation of the limits, as below 
and above, before and behind, right and left, etc. 

" It is the same in the world of representation and 
thought. Every proposition demands its opposite, and 
both demand their connection. Thesis, antithesis, 
and synthesis are the conditions of all logic. 

"Man, on the other side, is a representative of this law, 
since he stands midway between God and nature, be- 
tween Creator and creature, on one side as a product 
of nature, belonging to the world of unconscious being, 
on the other side as mind destined to self-conscious being 
united with God, or mind from God's mind. Only be- 
cause he carries within himself the essence of both is he 
capable of knowing both, and is at the same time called 
upon to make manifest the Divine in the universe, as the 
Good, the True, and the Beautiful. He is called, as crea- 
ture, to be also creator. 



2 24 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" He can only create according to the law of the Cre- 
ator himself, the law according to which he has been 
himself created, and by means of the material which 
nature affords him. This material he is to form and 
transform according to his own ideas and for his own 
purposes. In this way he represents his inward world 
in the outward world, and thereby learns to know both. 

" Up to tlie present time man creates and still works 
unconsciously upon the law of his activity, as the instinct 
of the beast works, whose creating is only possible also 
according to this law. But it is the destiny of man to 
attain consciousness of himself and his own action. 
When we make the law of development in the universe, 
or nature's law of formation, our law of education, this 
consciousness may be prepared for even in childhood. 
It therefore lies at the foundation of my culture of man 
by means of educational development." 

The auditor, with some apparent impatience, inter- 
rupted Froebel with the remark, "Your law, the connec- 
tion of opposites, has already been philosophically treated 
by Hegel in his ' Dialectics,' very well known to me." 

And now followed a rush of words upon Hegel's phi- 
losophy, which showed anything on his part rather than 
an understanding of that system ; or, rather, he appeared 
to take it for granted that what Froebel had stated with 
great emphasis and pretension was nothing more than 
the repetition of some phrases of the precepts of that 
system. 

" I pray you," he said, turning to Froebel, " of what 
use in education are such philosopliical phrases ? Edu- 
cation must in our time be practical above all things, and 
prepare for practical life." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 225 

With rising animation Froebel replied : "Yes, indeed, 
education must be practical, and especially in a time like 
ours. But the question is. What must we call practical ? 
Nothing can be more practical than my mode of educa- 
tion, or the law lying at its foundation, which is anything 
but a philosophical phrase ! I do not know how Hegel 
formulates and applies this law, for I have had no time 
for the study of his system. I must work out my educa- 
tional method from my own original views, and cannot 
linger over the philosophical systems of others. Most 
of them belong to a theory of the world that is passing 
away, whose one-sidedness becomes more apparent every 
day, and requires a supplement — a supplement, however, 
which w^ill not be wanting. 

" But I will by no means on that account undervalue 
the investigations of the past, or mistake their impor- 
tance, I know that what the present possesses of the 
knowledge of truth, is due to the work and investigations 
of our predecessors. Still less do I take the liberty to 
judge of anything that is not known, or but superficially 
known to me. Esteem and reverence for science as the 
greatest treasure of mankind is the duty of every indi- 
vidual. 

" At present, when the question is that of rising to a 
new stage of knowledge, we must begin at the beginning; 
in almost all the fields of knowledge, we must turn back 
to the true source of each one. Therefore, let us go our- 
selves to the things themselves, instead of taking the 
ready-made systems, and look at things anew as far as 
possible with our own eyes, without preconceived opin- 
ions, without repeating what others have said, in order 
that we may draw from a new source, and gain a new 



226 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

knowledge to add to the sum of what we possessed be- 
fore. The beginning of a new epoch in which we are 
hving requires this. 

" My educational method offers to its pupils from the 
beginning the opportunity to collect their own experiences 
from things themselves^ to look with their own eyes and 
learn to know by their own experiments, things and the 
relations of things to each other, and also the real Hfe 
of the world of humanity ; this last, however, within the 
limits necessary for morality, and not divested of the 
nimbus of the beautiful and the ideal. 

" In such a manner a greater inward as well as out- 
ward independence will be gained, which teaches one 
how to stand on one's own feet. But that is as far as 
the heavens from that apparent independence which 
grows out of hollow and empty pretension. That too 
much and too early knowledge with which youth is 
crammed (just as too early ripening is brought to fruit 
by too strong manuring of the ground and the artificial 
warmth of the forcing-house) prevents men from reach- 
ing a true and real independence, which is only the fruit 
of the vigorous efforts of one's own powers, especially by 
acting and doing. 

" You are quite right ; philosophical phrases, that is, 
philosophical systems learned by heart, the contents of 
which cannot thus be made one's own, not pnly are use- 
less, but positively injurious. One's own thinking is 
thereby hindered, the unfolding of individualities nipped, 
and these turned into other than their natural paths. 

" Not until the human mind has arrived at the knowl- 
edge of things and their relations, and has come to 
understand life and its claims in some degree, from its 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 227 

own experience ; not until it has gained the capability 
of judging for itself; and not till the universal foun- 
dation for its own theory is laid, should it concern it- 
self with the theories of others as fixed and ready-made 
systems. Only the somewhat matured mind can culti- 
vate itself further by means of the systems of thought 
of others. 

" The facts of life, of history, and of nature offer to 
youth suitable and sufficient material for thinking for 
all degrees of the capacity of human individuality ; and 
they at the same time cultivate the judgment, so as to 
put it in a condition at a later period to comprehend the 
relations to the highest things in an abstract manner, or 
philosophically. The history of the human race shows 
plainly how the philosophic theories were at first the 
result of many centuries' work of intellectual culture, 
according to which the individual has even now to ascend 
these various steps in the path of experience before he 
can arrive at the summit of intellectual ripeness and 
independence, which all philosophy claims. First his- 
tory, and then the philosophy of history. 

" It is quite a different thing whether we look upon 
concrete things and facts as merely material, the things 
and facts serving for this or that outward purpose, or con- 
template them as the outward form of spiritual con- 
tents, as the intermedium of higher truths and higher 
knowledge. In such a manner the inconspicuous prod- 
ucts of the kingdoms of nature serve the investigator 
of nature to discover facts which lead by syllogistic 
reasoning to the highest scientific knowledge. In this 
sense the material world is a symbol of the spiritual 
world, and it is in this sense that education needs to use 



2 28 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

it, especially for the purpose of leading the child to the 
ultimate cause of all things, — God." 

" I cannot declare myself in agreement with the last 
view you have expressed," said the auditor, with ironical 
self-conceit, " for I am an atheist. With the practical 
means that you have shown me, something can be done. 
The technical culture for which they serve is of the 
highest importance." 

Froebel smiled somewhat ironically at the incompar- 
able presumption with which the gentleman said he was 
an atheist, and replied : " I shall not quarrel with you 
upon your religious convictions, or rather upon your 
complete want of such, and will only remark that in 
my opinion there is no such thing as an atheist, for the 
deniers of God make out some kind of a God for them- 
selves in their own fashion, even to making themselves 
one in their miserable self-confidence. 

" But if you think that my educational materials are 
useful, this cannot be because of their exterior, which is 
as simple as possible, and contains nothing new. The 
worth of them is to be found exclusively in their appli- 
cation, that is, in the method in which I use them. But 
this method consists in the application of that law which 
you characterize as an ' empty phrase.' The whole 
meaning of my educational method rests upon this law 
alone. The method stands or falls with the recognition 
or non-recognition of it. Everything that is left is mere 
material, the working of which proceeds according to 
the law, and without that law would not be practicable." 

Froebel had risen from his seat as he was uttering 
these words, and spoke with the tone of the deepest 
irritation of offended dignity. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 229 

The conceited, puffed-up, and really ignorant young 
man, standing opposite to the true genius in his homely 
simplicity and modest dignity, made a characteristic pic- 
ture of the ever-recurring misapprehension of the true 
meaning of things, not only by conceited fools, but also 
by that jejune mediocrity which presumes to take the 
mastery by coarse boasting, assumption, and ignorance. 
The great number of this class of people, who without 
thorough culture meddle with scientific subjects and phil- 
osophical systems, utter in loud voice the theories and 
thoughts of others, and give themselves the air of cul- 
ture without possessing it, judge all things and every- 
thing, criticise contemptuously as long as it is not some- 
thing universally recognized or in correspondence to the 
cant words of the time, and may well come to the con- 
clusion that our method of education is not perfectly 
correct. 

The reverence for intellectual superiority, pure devo- 
tion to the search after truth, sacrifice for the realization 
of an idea, all seem to the great mass of the youth of 
the present day mere folly, and intellectual acquire- 
ments have value in their eyes only so far as they serve 
self-seeking, vanity, and desire for pleasure, or are useful 
for material gain. These undeniable facts are well fitted 
to point out the need of educational improvements, and 
to show that the learning in the schools, and obligatory 
attendance upon these last, do not yet result in real, fun- 
damental culture. 

Froebel's words made little impression upon the 
young fool whom they admonished. Instead of an- 
swering them, he pointed to some of the figures and 
structures which he had been making, not without skill, 



230 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

of the blocks, sticks, etc., which were lying before him, 
while Froebel was speaking. 

" You see," he said, " I already go to school to you, 
and am surprised to find how excellently this material 
can be used without your law. I would add to your 
building-blocks a few others for the higher architecture. 
This material is too simple for older pupils." 

Froebel replied : " It is this simplicity alone that makes 
these building-blocks suitable for children. I have also 
thought of carrying the dividing of them still further, 
according to the same law, but that would be an error. 
A further division would make the legitimate use of them 
impossible. We can use the four boxes of blocks to- 
gether for a greater increase of material. The just line 
of the division must be observed. The older pupils may 
multiply the material by their own discoveries, but then 
it ceases to be a means of methodical instruction. Such 
building-blocks as you suggest can be offered to a riper 
age of childhood, by which the various styles of building 
of nations and times can be represented, I admit, but 
that does not belong to my kindergarten, which can use 
only what is elementary. My material is all-sufficient 
also for the first school-years. A too great variety of it 
would prevent the unfolding of the spirit of invention." 

" Your law would hinder my invention," said the all- 
wise gentleman. 

"And yet," said Froebel, "you have used the law your- 
self in the forms you have made. Any one is able to 
make the forms with the proper material, but every one 
who does it, applies my law, even if without being aware 
of it ! While you lay your little sticks in opposite direc- 
tions to bring out this figure, you apply the law of oppo- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 1231 

sites^ and when you use these other little sticks as con- 
necting links of those lying in opposite directions, you 
connect the opposites, applying also the law of their 
connection. 

" All formation is on the condition of uniting various 
parts ; what is united forms, as it were, a web or texture, 
and that exists only by the connecting of opposing lines 
or threads, as, for example, the web of the spider, which 
only thus holds together. No organism exists without 
such a knitting of parts, w^ithout at least approximately 
forming a web, even if it is not visible to the eye. The 
magnifying power of the microscope shows us plainly 
the net-like web, whether it is upon a leaf, or upon our 
skin, or whatever it may be. Even the smallest cell, 
which is not visible to the eye, consists of a web, and every- 
thing which comes into view from the invisible point can 
be formed in no other way than by being produced thus 
from different directions, or shot forth, as in the process 
of crystallization. Every web also forms a net in a cer- 
tain way by the crossing of the lines running in opposite 
directions. But this net exhibits at every crossing, or 
every point of contact, a centre which is to be referred 
to some circumference, as it were, and every square of 
the net is a division which offers the best means of 
arrangement of the different parts of a whole. 

" For this reason I give my children a net consisting 
of perpendicular and horizontal lines, which serves as a 
guide for drawing all forms, and regulates and facilitates 
the proportions of parts to a whole and their correct and 
equal co-ordination. Painters use a net for the same 
purpose in their copies of pictures. 

" The net affords the most intelligible image of the 



232 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

joining of opposites, by the opposite direction of its lines. 
The web of all nature's forms is always a net, and ex- 
presses the law as the norm of all formation. The name 
is of no importance, but I hold my designation of the 
law of the connection of opposites as the best, and particu- 
larly good for describing relations in the intellectual 
order of things. 

" The inflexible dualism in philosophical theories has 
arisen from the one-sided emphasizing of opposites with- 
out consideration of the connecting members, that is, 
God and the world, without taking in man as the con- 
necting link, etc. Our time has the task of completing 
this one-sided theory, since it teaches that all opposites, 
without exception, exist only as an absolute principle, 
but never as absolute in the phenomenal world, where the 
relative rules. The law of connection is therefore the 
law which our time especially needs to know ! " 

Froebel turned more to the others present than to the 
stranger with this explanation. The man was evidently 
not capable of understanding the deepest treatment of 
the subject. 

To prevent Froebel from losing himself too far in his 
outspoken thoughts, as he often did, and thereby not 
dwelling upon their application to his method, I asked 
him to point out his law in one of his materials. 

" And which of the occupations will serve best for it, 
in your opinion ? " he asked. 

" The drawing, I think," replied I, '' which shows so 
clearly and significantly how by the application of the 
law of the connection of opposites the greatest variety of 
figures arises without any preliminaries, and without any 
other direction to the child than those which guide all his 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 233 

occupations and bring them to practical results. When 
I asked a six-year-old child in the kindergarten to carry- 
out the directed linear figures still further, he answered, 
' I cannot find the opposite of my last figure.' 

" ' Now, then, draw without a rule,' I said. The child 
looked at me astonished, and replied, ' But can 't I find 
any more figures ? ' 

" A better proof that the law is the very simplest and 
is a guide for making the child work intelligently for 
independent formation cannot be found ! Your grown 
pupils say that the drawing makes the law intelligible to 
them in the highest degree, and some of them have said 
that they first accjuired the power of logical thinking by 
this occupation of drawing." 

Froebel was delighted at this testimony, and took a 
number of the drawing-sheets of the trained pupils, 
shuffled them together, and laid them in a pile upon the 
table, saying : " Now see whether you can find in these 
inventions, made according to my rule, the individual 
stamp of each pupil, and can put together the sheets 
drawn by each." 

This proved an easy task. In some of the drawings 
lying before me predominated the radiating, the articu- 
lated, or the open style ; while in others, more compact, 
condensed, and solid bodies showed their similarity of 
form. 

Only a few were too indefinite to express characteristic 
marks ; so that it was easy, in the majority of these little 
sheets, to discriminate between the work of the different 
persons. 

*' Surely," I said, '' the free inventions of all the occu- 
pations wrought in the kindergarten show how good a 



234 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 



means it is to call forth the individual tendencies and 
characteristics of each pupil. But one must be con- 
vinced of this by one's own observation in order to 
believe it. As long as this is not made, the cause will 
have opponents who will pervert it into its opposite. A 
short time ago a teacher called it a wooden education 
{Schablonenerziehung), because he thought the children 
were forced to bring out the same things with the same 
materials, instead of being allowed the necessary freedom 
in action and play." 

" That is only because they do not know how my law 
is to be applied, which alone can make possible any free- 
dom in form.ation. The order of the whole creation rests 
upon this law alone, and all freedom of development 
corresponds to this order." 

He took the first sheet of his drawing-method in his 
hand, and showed how the lines of different lengths 
drawn in the net formed a right-angled triangle, consist- 
ing of perpendicular, horizontal, and oblique lines ; and 
how thus, out of the triangles placed together in oppo- 
site directions, symmetrical figures are produced, like 
those which are formed by the planes, consisting of dif- 
ferent triangles." 

He said : " With my planes I give the triangle as a 
material surface. Here in the drawing I have three 
lines which form the triangle. Then the parts which 
are arranged by lines into a whole form a triangle as a 
whole, which again serves as a part to form a greater 
whole by the union of several triangles. 

" In the further carrying-out of the designs there arise 
larger and more complicated figures, whose parts are 
then united as a whole, to be added together as parts or 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 235 

members of a still greater whole, like the articulations 
in every organism of nature. Nature follows the same 
course, proceeding from the simplest to the most com- 
plicated, and forms a similar articulation, since every- 
thing in it is a member or a part of a greater whole, 
from a blade of grass up to the universe. This articula- 
tion begins with the simplest and rises to the most com- 
plicated, the boundless whole. Everything, then, is a 
member (or part), and also a whole, or an organism. 

"Thus I give to the child, by my system of drawing, 
an image and scheme of organization, and develop in 
him his tendency for organizing. Every productive 
work, every work consciously willed, is conditioned upon 
the union of parts according to an idea, and that is noth- 
ing else than org-anizing. 

"All organizing rests upon the application of a rule or 
a law : it is therefore according to law, and can never 
admit of caprice. Without the application of the law, 
the child could not create independently, any more than 
he could learn to read and write without guidance. But, 
before he learns to read and write, he himself must learn 
the beginning of action, or of organizing and shaping ; 
and for that there is need of the impression of elemen- 
.tary forms, which lie at the foundation of all forms also. 
These must make an impression upon the child's mind, 
in order to prepare for the later culture of the power of 
abstract thinking {^Begriff-bildimg), or scientific mathe- 
matics. My system of drawing shows plainly the transi- 
tion from the regular mathematical forms — the skeleton 
of. all forms — to the forms of beauty. 

" You will recognize these forms as beautiful, that is, 
harmonious in the correspondence of their parts. The 



236 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

single parts you find here in their beginnings, as mathe- 
matical forms and then as triangles. 

"We also always find the fundamental forms as mathe- 
matical forms in nature, but draped, in order to rise to 
beautiful form. 

" Art developed in the same way. The Egyptian 
temples show us only straight-lined figures, which con- 
sequently show mathematical relations. Only in later 
times appeared the lines of beauty, that is, the arched 
or circular lines. 

" I carry the child on in the same way. You can per- 
ceive in these figures how the gradual transition from the 
straight to the curved line takes place." 

One of the teachers present, from a neighboring town, 
here interrupted, and said: ".One sees in the kinder- 
garten how remarkably this method of drawing develops 
the children, and how quickly, by the application of this 
simple law, they are first directed how to make forms, 
and then go on to the independent invention of regular 
forms ; and that this method is the only one that can 
make such young children capable of drawing wit/umf 
patterns^ which 1 never should have considered possible 
if it had not been for my personal observation. Besides, 
this combining and conceiving is the best thinking exer- 
cise for young children that can be found. You will be 
pleased, Herr Froebel, when I bring you the inventions 
of my children, which I have selected for the coming 
teachers' convention." 

" Certainly," said Froebel, '' that I shall ! You have 
already done much in your school in a short time, since 
you introduced my method." 

This teacher was one of the eager and self sacrificing 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 237 

pupils of Froebel, from the neighborhood of Marienthal, 
who devoted every spare moment to learn of him, coming 
to him a long way even in stormy, cold, and snowy 
weather, and otlien going home late at night. 

" The instinct of children," I added, " knows how to 
make Froebel's law their own very quickly ; that I ob- 
serve in every kindergarten I visit. The youngest chil- 
dren are able to make very pretty inventions, and without 
imagining, on that account (as many of the present mere 
imitators of the thing do), that the new figures they have 
discovered are exclusively their own possession. They 
see how every child can do the same thing. 

"Through the children, adults will learn how to seize 
upon the law and its consequences, while at present there 
is so little understanding of it that many people presume, 
in their pitiful self-conceit, to deride it ! 

" By and by FroebeVs educational laio will be accepted 
as distinctly and independently as Newton's law of gravi- 
tation. Now, every school-boy who has learned anything 
understands Newton's law. When Newton proclaimed 
it, only a few of the learned were able to comprehend it. 

" The whole striving of the present time tends to make 
serviceable by practical application the discoveries and 
knowledge of the human mind. The practical applica- 
tion and results will prove the truth of the idea lying 
at its foundation, and then these will make it plain to 
the common understanding, which always at first needs 
demonstration. 

" It is always the simplest and nearest principle that 
men seize with the most difficulty. No one thinks it 
strange that the instinct of beasts makes them act so 
intelligently, makes the migrating birds, for instance, fly 



238 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

toward the south at the right time, makes them choose 
the sliortest way, and on tlieir return the next year seek 
their old nests, etc. But they do not beUeve in the rea- 
sonableness of the idea of the human instinct in the 
child, and deride your idea of guiding his unconscious 
action educationally, and making it useful for later cul- 
ture." 

Froebel assented, and went on : " The time has now 
come to exalt all work into free activity, that is, to make it 
intelligent action. This can only take place when the 
law, according to which all formative activity proceeds, 
is recognized and consciously applied, as it has been 
hitherto unconsciously applied. The occupation-material 
of my method gives the means of the unconscious appli- 
cation of the law on the children's part to rise to art in 
such a way as to come to their consciousness by degrees 
and be recognized as the guide and regulator of all for- 
mation. In no other way can human work be trans- 
formed into free activity. It can only become intellec- 
tual acdon out of what has been mere mechanical action, 
when the occupation of the hand is at the same time the 
occupation of the mind. 

" At the present time, art alone can truly be called free 
activity, but every human work corresponds more or less 
with creative activity, and this is necessary in order to 
make man the image of his Divine Creator, — a creator, 
on his own part, in miniature." 

After all the company had gone, I expressed to Froebel 
my great sorrow that so many useless and even harmful 
elements should press into his cause, while the intelligent 
advocates stood apart from each other. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 239 

" Have you never found any young man but Midden- 
dorff," I inquired, " who could and would devote himself 
wholly to your cause ? " 

" I once thought I had found such a one," answered 
Froebel, " but he left me and betrayed me in the most 
injurious manner." 

He then related to me how much he had loved a young 
teacher in the Keilhau institution ; how he had over- 
loaded him with benefits, and had devoted his time to 
him at a great sacrifice, in order to induct him fully into 
his educational idea, in the hope of making of him an 
intelligent, true scholar and teacher who would spread 
his doctrine abroad after his death. With great sorrow 
he was obliged to come to the conclusion that there had 
either been an incapacity in the young man to understand 
the thing full}^, or he had wanted the necessary self-denial 
for such a task. After free conversation upon the mis- 
conception of his idea, a profound estrangement had 
taken place between them, and the offended vanity of the 
pupil had separated them. His selfishness and falsehood 
had shown themselves more and more afterwards, and 
made Froebel feel that his intention was only to make 
serviceable for his own purposes the idea Froebel had 
held as so sacred a one. When the sad time of poverty 
and want came upon him, during which he needed so 
much friendly support, this ungrateful one left Keilhau, 
which seemed to him no longer suited to the execution 
of his plans. He endeavored to bring discredit upon 
Froebel and his institution, by the coarsest detraction 
and false accusations. This was his gratitude for the 
love and benefit that had been bestowed upon him ! 

Froebel made this communication to me with the 
deepest sadness, and with tears in his eyes. 



240 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" Must every Master have his Judas, and every truth 
its betrayer ! " I exclaimed, 

" Yes," said Froebel, " it cannot be otherwise than that 
self-sacrifice, which every bearer of an idea must make, 
should call forth its opposite, which is selfishness. Sel- 
fishness makes profit out of everything that does not re- 
sist it. * Let him who will follow me take up the cross.' 
Thus it always is with those who do battle for truth; they 
must expect to be crucified ! " 

" To have nourished a snake in one's bosom," I re- 
marked, " is always the most painful suffering one can 
have to bear. But the greatest of sins consists in be- 
traying a new truth, which is to serve for the salvation 
of humanity. That is the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
Beware of such persons as your visitor of to-day, who 
will not hesitate to commit this sin against your idea." 

How much our cause would have to suffer from its 
betrayers we had no suspicion at that time. For my 
own part, I hoped that the inconspicuousness of its 
outward appearance would protect it from the Sover- 
eigns of Industry, so great a number of whom have taken 
possession of it at present. 

Far worse, even, is the influence of those who do not 
hesitate to deride it and make it ridiculous, while they 
proceed to make use of its practical means to gain the 
credit of the discovery for themselves ! 

For this purpose they select single passages, without 
their context, from Froebel's writings, which in Froebel's 
heavy manner of expression sound not only confused and 
obscure, but absolutely senseless. It is at best difficult 
to express new views clearly and significantly, since every 
new thing must create its own expression of itself. But 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 241 

in endeavoring to express deep thoughts upon the being 
of man in childish plays, the danger can scarcely be 
avoided of making that appear ridiculous which is truly 
earnestness. 

Besides, there are in every cause, and especially in the 
first attempt to carry out what is still new and therefore 
undeveloped, weak places and defects which can easily 
be used maliciously ; thus, many a badly formed verse, 
many an example not quite well chosen, is used in that 
way. 

They do not hesitate to call Froebel's occupation-ma- 
terials and children's plays a " play-martyr system," even 
after numerous kindergartens with their cheerful, happy, 
and naturally developed pupils have given the lie to such 
slanders ; after thousands of parents have blessed the 
beneficent institution, and an ever-increasing number of 
thinkers have recognized and accepted the idea lying at 
the foundation of it as a true one and inspired by genius ! 

No //7>//^/y visitor of even the numerous kindergartens 
conducted without comprehension of the method, and 
without knowledge of the science of teaching, would be 
induced to use the expression " a martyr system," which 
only exposes the malice of those who apply it. 

The tactics of those critics who think they are criticis- 
ing Froebel's work fundamentally, proceed, after showing 
that the Froebelian principles and measures are ruinous 
and inefficient, to speak of the necessity and timeliness 
of the very institutions and arrangements under discus- 
sion which they have themselves disparaged, and par- 
ticularly to exalt the no-longer-to-be-delayed education 
for work as the true foundation of the education of the 
people ! The discussions of this subject, reported with 



242 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

great emphasis, are followed by practical propositions, 
ingeniously invented means of cultivating the working 
power of childhood still in the playing age, etc., and 
with astonishment one recognizes in these propositions 
and means for the furtherance of this object the very 
plays and occupations of Froebel hitherto ridiculed ; 
and, indeed, without any change or alteration on the out- 
ward, material side, but also without anything of the 
methodical means by which alone the result is to be 
reached, and of which this new discoverer has not even 
a presentiment! 

Another mode of setting themselves up as improvers 
and promoters of Froebel's method consists in laughing 
at the law lying at the foundation of it, or casting it 
aside ironically (showing themselves utterly ignorant of 
it), and then, with the assertion that there is another 
meaning to it than the one Froebel gives, letting the 
occupations invented by Froebel without any change fol- 
low as their own invention ! This is scarcely credible, 
but it is true. Without any conception of Froebel's idea 
and method of applying it, without understanding the 
meaning of the subject itself, they carelessly copy what 
Froebel has invented and what his real pupils have worked 
out, and set themselves up as its improvers and promoters, 
not thinking that the time must come when the ground 
and truth of it will be seen and recognized, and they will 
find themselves in the pillory. It is the characteristic 
way of such enemies to decry as " orthodox " and " imi- 
tators " those who truly and earnestly advocate the cause, 
and as following Froebel to the letter blindly, and with- 
out any judgment and discrimination of their own. And 
yet every child must understand that continuous develop- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 243 

ment, which every thing and every one needs, is only pos- 
sible through the application of what exists according to 
a prescribed rule or method, or methodically. One can 
only improve what is at hand, and can do it then only by 
real understanding of the thought lying at the foundation 
of the discovery. It is also a heavy responsibility to take 
upon themselves to put off the recognition, and with it 
the universal application, .of an innovation so full of 
promise for the improvement of the education of the 
people, and that in a time like ours when such heavy 
battles are impending for a new social birth ; battles 
which the unconquered roughness of the masses threatens 
to make bloody. But these people will have to expiate 
on a large scale whatever apparent advantages they have 
gained for the present, when the truth shall be seen and 
their miserable machinations shall be revealed. They 
forget that this spirit, this idea, is the only living one and 
therefore alone capable of making a germinating seed of 
truth grow. But this delay to profit by the new educa- 
tional system is inevitable, since the authorities and all 
those who have influence in this respect will be led astray 
by such charlatanism and the intentional fraud of indi- 
viduals. 

The improvement which each and all need can only 
be reached by means of practice, but never by those who 
cast aside the method on which this practice depends as 
" empty phrases," without observing that the fish they 
thought they had caught had escaped and left only sand 
in the net. The men without genius neither understand 
genius, nor are they able to separate the idea as such 
from the person who holds it ; they think the idea can- 
not be holy, if they see the person who holds it err, as 



244 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

every man does. Yet while setting themselves up as 
improvers, they have not pointed out a single error, or 
refuted Froebel, or added to his idea an iota of any- 
thing useful and new. They speak about what they do 
not understand, and therefore cannot give or carry out 
the application of it, and so they will continue to strike 
genius dead in its swaddling-clothes, until there shall 
appear in sufficient numbers those who really do under- 
stand what it is that Froebel has found for a new starl- 
ing-point for the development of the human mind, and also 
the means to start from the visible world instead of from 
ideas ; from experience and facts instead of from doc- 
trines ; and to smooth the path of transition from the 
sensuous to the spiritual in the period of unconscious 
being without tearing away the connection, as is done 
now, whatever may be said to the contrary. 

Besides, there can be no question at present about the 
want of full understanding and practical application of 
the method, so far as the necessary preliminary condi- 
tions for it are yet wanting. One of these conditions 
consists in the existing ignorance of mothers, and conse- 
quently in faulty family education ; another, in the want 
of sufficient and special power of teaching. These wants 
are to be duly considered first, and the power of teaching 
is to be cultivated in as " orthodox " a manner, accord- 
ing to Froebel, as possible; that is, methodically, without 
the deterioration of these boasters. Only thus can the 
spirit of the method pass into the practice of it, make up 
what is wanting, and by improving the whole secure con- 
tinuous development. The subject must first be set forth 
in its original form, and the right beginning made. 

At that time, when Froebel was still actively employed 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 245 

for the realization of his idea, he found, among the never- 
ceasing disappointments, ever-recurring consolation and 
encouragement through a few sympathizers who, filled 
like himself with the love of truth, were ready for every 
sacrifice to it. 

When at the time above mentioned he had ended his 
account of the betrayal of one of his pupils, he took in 
his hand a letter he had just received, saying, " The be- 
trayal of the faithless one is atoned for by such noble 
and true men as the writer of this letter." 

He read some passages from the letter, which was 
from Professor von Leonhardi of Heidelberg. They 
were the first words I had heard at that time from my 
true friend of many long years. Froebel related with 
deep feeling how Leonhardi had devoted his whole life 
and all his powers to advocating and saving from neglect 
the teachings of the late philosopher Krause. Ever 
since his eighteenth year he had not hesitated at any 
sacrifice of every personal interest, even to giving up his 
paternal inheritance, in order to carry on the editorship 
and spread of Krause's writings, by which the door of truth 
was first opened to him, and whose enthusiastic promul- 
gator he remained to the last breath. To his unweary- 
ing activity, his rare power of work, and his peerless per- 
severance, is chiefly due that the weighty heritage of the 
great thinker was brought to light, and numerous disci- 
ples and advocates of his doctrine won over. 

Leonhardi left even the material savings of his simple 
and unassuming life to the work to which he had devoted 
himself in the interest of mankind. His property is 
secured to the establishment of a Krause-foundation, 
whose work shall be to spread his philosophy by word 
and pen. 



246 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The known agreement of Froebel's views with those 
of Krause already made the hitter desirous, as early as 
1835, to connect his efforts with those of FroebeL* 

This plan, which he imparted to Froebel, could not be 
carried out, because the scientific activity of Krause for 
speculative philosophy differed too much from the educa- 
tional activity of Froebel, which was so entirely devoted 
to practical life. Yet Leonhardi continued to remain a 
true friend to Froebel and his educational work, which 
seemed to him best adapted to carry out in the sense of 
Krause's views the moral improvement and renovation 
of human society. 

So Leonhardi neglected no opportunity of calling 
attention to Froebel and his work, and afterwards he 
stood at my side as the most faithful helper and coun- 
sellor. He was one of the first who supported my plan 
of founding a Universal Educational Union, and lent a 
helping hand to promote it.f Till his death he belonged 
to the committee and supported its efforts. Leonhardi 
was one of those rare men who devote themselves to 
an idea throughout their whole existence, with a never 
wavering conviction of it, from pure love for truth and 
humanity. The fewer such examples our time has to 
show of the loftiest self-denial, the greater is the duty of 
rescuing the memory of such from oblivion. 

The affinity of views between Froebel and Krause is 
undeniable, although the activity of the two led them in 

* See Hanschmann's biography of Froebel. 

t This may account for the widespread error that the Educational Union 
arose out of the Congress of Philosopliers of Krause's followers. This is 
not the case. I invited only a few members of tliat Congress to join the 
Union I founded. See the Report of the Congress of Philosophers. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 247 

quite opposite directions, and each of them construed an 
idea, that was one in essence, according to his own the- 
ory. The view that genius has picked up its ideas here 
and there, and has done its work correctly only by the 
help of others, is one of the many perverted notions con- 
cerning the creative power of man, which it falls to the 
lot of genius to bear. Genius is the most original thing 
in the world, and born of God's mercy to receive the in- 
spiration of truth and beauty. But genius also needs 
excitement and influence from without, in order to be 
conscious of itself and the mission which it is to fulfil. 
The ruling minds of an epoch are spiritually related, and 
affect and work upon each other, without the peculiar 
stamp of each being necessarily effaced. 

So some of Krause's writings and his personal ac- 
quaintance had an influence upon Froebel, and here 
and there lent expression to his views, which he found 
so much difficulty in putting into words. ' In regard to 
this, it is to be lamented that Froebel did appropriate 
many a mode of expression from Krause's writings, by 
which his own were made unenjoyable and anything but 
clear. The same complaint may be made of Krause's 
writings. Praiseworthy are the efforts to purify the Ger- 
man language from unnecessary foreign words, and par- 
ticularly to Germanize scientific words ; but Krause's 
style combines a great number of different words into 
one, giving birth to real word-monsters that are ill 
adapted to carrying out the contemplated purpose of 
clearing up ideas. Particularly the idea taken from 
Krause about the linking together of parts, or articu- 
lation (Gliedcrung), seems to stand in full contradiction 
to this purpose. 



248 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

But even genius is subject to error, and often carries 
its fundamental thought to its logical result in a one- 
sided manner ; and from this liability Froebel cannot be 
said to be free. 

The theory in which Froebel and Krause agreed espe- 
cially is the idea of the analogy existing between 
organic development in nature and organic develop- 
ment in the spiritual world, and according to which the 
historical development of mankind has proceeded, obey- 
ing the same laws as those of nature and its organisms 
{Gleickgesetzigkcif). The same logic of the one all- 
penetrating Divine reason rules in both, wiconscioiis in 
the one (nature), conscious to itself in the other (mind). 
Therefore are the opposites ruling everywhere, not abso- 
lute, but relative, and always find their connection or 
solution in the process of life. 

Mankind, as the highest organism of creation, is des- 
tined to constitute an entity bodily as well as mentally. 
All the domains of human life are necessarily penetrated 
with one spirit ; and, since they are linked together as 
independent organs, they must form conscious parts of 
the whole, which is human society. 

To that end, at some future time, science, and art, as 
well as all the active principles of human life, justice, and 
religion (or state and church), must be penetrated with the 
same spirit of truth, and with a consciousness of the one 
aim of serving humanity perfected according to the thought 
of God, that is, " the kingdom of God upon earth." With 
this aim, mutual love, penetrating all individuals, must 
unite them into a living, self-conscious whole, which then 
represents a spiritualized or glorified humanity. 

This is something like a popular statement of the gQw- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 249 

eral theory of the two contemporary thinkers. The goal 
which they place before man is the same, — the ideal of 
human conditions and human nature. And both recog- 
nize the correct development and culture of the human 
being, and the improvement of all human arrangements, 
as reaching this destiny ; both wish for moral improve- 
ment, for the renewing of human society. 

Krause, in pursuit of this aim, set up a deeply pon- 
dered scientific system, embracing all domains of hu- 
man existence, which, in the sense of his philosophy, 
shall enlighten men upon their own nature and destiny, 
and the highest aim of all social arrangements, and de- 
termine, in conformity to that, the thinking, feeling, and 
acting of individuals. 

Froebel, on the contrary, particularly occupies himself 
with finding the germ of Divine reason in human nature 
in its unconscious era ; and he proceeds, from the law 
that dominates it as an incontestably steadfast one, to 
rise to consciousness and freedom of spirit. The law 
of development in nature offers him the guide by which 
he may find the law of development in man, and for the 
spiritual ordering of things. This law becomes for him 
the liuv of education^ according to which God guides the 
development of man, — of individuals as well as of na- 
tions, — and of humanity as a whole. He sees in creation 
the embodied thoughts of God. These offer to the yet 
unconscious mind of man (in childhood) reflections of his 
own being, and thereby become sensuous images of the 
unfolding spiritual life, which, by these symbols in the 
physical world, rises to spiritual consciousness.* 

* What is spiritual is that which is in communion with other spirits, 
includins; God. — Translator, 



250 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The conformity of the unconscious (or the life of im- 
pulse) with the reason, that determines the life of mind, 
makes a synthesis between nature and mind, — the mate- 
rial world and the intellectual world. The human being 
is the intermedium of unconscious nature and the all-con- 
scious Mind, since it goes forth out of unconsciousness (in 
childhood), and belongs to this unconsciousness, bodily, 
during its whole earthly life ; but, at the same time, it 
may be rising to an ever-higher degree of spiritual life, 
approaching the absolute self-consciousness of God. In 
short, human life is the passing-over from unconscious- 
ness to the highest consciousness. 

Krause takes his departure from thought, abstraction, 
in order to explain the phenomena of the concrete world 
in nature and culture, and ends with the ideal or proto- 
type of all the forms of life, the realization of which is 
the ultimate task and final destiny of humanity. He 
draws up the plan, as it were, of the temple of humanity 
in the future. 

Froebel, when he teaches how the first steps are to be 
taken by which to bring forth a generation cultivated in 
conformity with nature, in which the original idea of God 
is restored by man, points out the way which leads to 
this temple of perfected humanity, and furnishes the 
material for building it ; and thus the first condition is 
fulfilled by which the highest ideal can be brought to 
ripeness. 

To reach this end, he goes back to the fountain-head 
and origin of all life in its germinating time, in order to 
seek there its primary roots and the norm of its develop- 
ment. Only the life still fettered by necessity shows 
significantly and clearly what is the law that rules every- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 25 1 

thing, because all caprice is shut out from it. It is the 
freedom of conscious being which conditions its oppo- 
site, unconsciousness and bondage, since only its own 
striving, which it needs in order to break its fetters, can 
lead to freedom, — that is, to that freedom which recog- 
nizes law as its first principle, and submits to it con- 
scifliisly. 

The highest goal of human development — the com- 
pletion of full-grown humanity — demands the highest 
degree of self-consciousness. This self-consciousness 
implies self-knowledge as a condition, and self-knowl- 
edge is only attainable through self-activity. In the 
products of his activity man recognizes himself and his 
power, just as God, the Creator, manifests himself in the 
works of creation. 

For the works of man, as well as for the formation of 
the organism of human society, nothing less than the law 
of formation which determines all the works of creation 
can be adequate. Therefore this law is the principle of 
all hiuiian creation ; and every individual must be pene- 
trated by it, in order to be able to contribute his part to 
the building-up of humanity as a whole. 

The life of the unconscious, consequently human life 
in the stage of unconsciousness (childhood), is deter- 
mined exclusively by the principle of law, the law of 
nature. To teach children who are rising out of the 
unconscious era into the conscious, to apply this princi- 
ple of law which dwells in them to their own doing and 
producing, serves to make it objective to them and causes 
it to be recognized, as they grow in intelligence, as the 
rule of all formation. Only by such experimental knowl- 
edge is the human mind made capable of taking part, 
intelligently, in the new building-up of human society. 



252 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The rough, unspiritualized masses cannot do this, and 
they hinder those members of society who are conscious 
of themselves as men, from being able to work success- 
fully for perfection. 

It is therefore and must ever remain an essential con- 
dition of all progress to furnish for all members of society 
some degree of this intelligence in regard to human na- 
ture, human destiny, and human perfectibility. There- 
fore the task of the time is the solution of the problem 
of universal culture. 

Krause strives for this solution by teaching adults, 
already cultivated and thinking beings, that is, the fa- 
vored minority, whose part in life is to protect and 
increase the treasures of science for mankind. 

Froebel wished to lay an educational foundation for 
all, within the individual limits set by nature, that all may 
by degrees, if only in the course of centuries, help the 
whole sum of human powers and tendencies to their de- 
velopment, in the interest of the whole human race. 
And he wished to lay this foundation at a time of life 
which, till now, had been left without that systematic 
support of the mental powers which we call education, 
namely, in the earliest childhood. The fundamental 
principles of his method may be summarized something 
as follows : — 

1. The period of unconscious impulse, that comes but 
once in life, being the beginning of the whole develop- 
ment of every man, is the most important moment for 
educational influence. 

2. As the conduct and discipline of the mental pow- 
ers at the school age of children are, in conformity to 
the destiny of rational beings, methodical^ so the guidance 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 253 

of the mental powers in the unconscious era preceding 
the school age needs even far more to be methodical 
than the succeeding years, which have already reached a 
certain degree of intelligence, because the spiritual in- 
stinct of the unconscious period, far more than the in- 
stinct of animals, lacks all power of reaction. 

3. Impressions of the concrete world made on the 
unconscious child, who is stimulated by them to the act 
of perception, form the beginning for the later knowl- 
edge, which is the beginning of consciousness. 

4. Things can only be perceived in the properties of 
form, color, size, number, weight, sound, etc., common to 
all things, and to impress each of these properties one 
thing is chosen in order to exemplify it in the simplest 
and most striking manner ; an A B C of things is thus 
learned, which consists of only about half the number of 
the letters of the alphabet. 

5. The methodical use of this ABC of things — in 
the first childish activity of play — affords a means of 
help, like those which the school applies for its various 
disciplines of instruction (namely, the selection of ap- 
propriate materials and their order and division. Thus, 
for example, in geography, the division of the land into 
mountainous chains, water basins, etc. ; in history, the 
division into epochs ; in natural history the division of 
the species of plants into orders, families, etc.). 

There is no other way to give the mind a clear 
view of a multitude of things, than to compare multi- 
plicity, variety, and manifoldness with unity or univer- 
sality, in order to make prominent that which is common 
to all the parts (fundamental forms or types) which bring 
out this common property in the simplest manner. But 



254 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

if the comparatively matured mind needs this help of clas- 
sification, how much more must it be needed by the 
child's mind in the first stages of its development ! 

6. Matured thinking, and particularly philosophical 
thinking, rests upon simple, determined fundamental 
conceptions ; for example, the conceptions of unity, va- 
riety, being, growth, time, space, connection, relation, 
etc. All these are abstractions deduced from things in 
the world of phenomena. In other words, fundamental 
<r(?;/ceptions must correspond to definite fundamental 
/^rceptions, wdiich have preceded them either consciously 
or unconsciously. 

In Froebel's system, the perception of the form of the 
ball corresponds to the idea of unity. Space is designated 
by the limiting of space. The conception of time is ex- 
pressed by the succession of facts in the past, present, 
and future. It makes a great difference whether such 
perceptions are acquired in childhood clearly and defi- 
nitely, with conscious intention, or are left to chance. 

7. Such things are to be offered for the first observa- 
tion of the mind as will afford appropriate fundamental 
/^Tceptions for subsequent fundamental ^^wceptions. 
Thus is gained an immediate connection between con- 
ception (abstraction) and sensuous perception. A logical 
chain connects the impression which originates human 
thinking with the end, or conception. Clear observation 
and clear representation lead to comparison and clear 
conclusions, and thus to clear logical thinking. 

8. To reach this result, merely the rightly chosen ob- 
jects (types) are not enough, there must also be the right 
treatment or use of them in order to give the first 
acquaintance with the material world. By such activity 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 255 

the first experiences and the first technics of the human 
hand are acquired, or an A B C of work which, together 
with the exercise of the sense of beauty, gives a simulta- 
neous preparation for art. 

9. Only a methodical mode of education, which is 
founded upon the knowledge of the natural progress of 
intellectual development, and applies to the human being 
the same principle of law, according to which all and 
every development in the universe proceeds, is a mode 
of education adapted to the nature of the human being 
on the one hand, and conformable to outward natui-e on 
the other. 

This mode of education discovered by Froebel may be 
called a philosophical pedagogy, since it requires intelli- 
gent comparison of the nature of man and of his rela- 
tions to the world and to God ; and the highest goal of 
human perfectibility is predetermined by the first steps 
of the yet unconscious human soul. 

Since the practice of this mode of education is placed 
specially in the hands of women, it may be called the 
philosophy for women. It is specially a philosophy for 
practical life, and it receives its whole significance only 
by an immediate application. 

This shows the opposite direction of the work of Froe- 
bel to that of the purely scientific system of Krause. 
The task of the latter is the clearing up of the minds of 
thinking adult men upon their relations to nature, human- 
ity, and God, — the fixing of the conceptions upon every- 
thing which occupies the mind of man upon the institu- 
tions which he has been called upon to realize upon earth, 
and upon his own being and its highest destiny ; while 
Froebel has to do with the guidance of the yet uncon- 



256 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

scious human soul in order to lead it intelligently to the 
highest goal. 

The views of both these philosophers combat the pres- 
ent prevailing materialism without denying that true side 
of it which respects the reason that rules in nature, and 
its concurrence with the human mind. On the contrary, 
the ideas upon the personality of this mind, consequently 
of its immortality and eternal progress, and especially 
upon religious truth so far as it has been revealed to the 
human mind, are eternally and unshakably established 
by both Krause and Froebel. 

This view of things is not only a negation of material- 
istic errors, but it points out at the same time the means 
and connection through which the opposites of mind and 
nature, as absolute, are resolved, without risking a single 
one of the truths in the kingdom of the mind. This 
view, then, offers to the present time a remedy against 
the prevailing errors which have arisen from misunder- 
stood truth. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

TEACHERS' CONVENTION. 

IN September of 185 1 every member of our circle was 
occupied with gaining participants in the impending 
Teachers' Convention, w^hich had been planned and pre- 
pared for the past few months, and was appointed for the 
2 7 -29th instant. Every promise of participation which 
came was a message of joy to Froebel. The prohibition 
which had been decreed against kindergartens gave only 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 257 

greater importance to the coming investigation of the 
Froebelian method by specialists, and Froebel entertained 
the hope of again seeing his idea brought pubHcly into 
estimation through favorable judgments of it. 

Diesterweg, who had already been in Liebenstein in 
the early summer, came now again among the first ar- 
rivals, and Middendorff soon followed. 

Many were the councils held at my residence upon the 
order of the proceedings, the contents of the essays to 
be read by Froebel, and the reports to be contributed by 
existing institutions, etc. 

I begged Diesterweg to take charge of the part as- 
signed to me upon the progress of the cause in Berlin, 
that greater weight might be imparted to it by his au- 
thority in the pedagogic world. 

Rector Kohler, of Corbach (not to be confounded 
with the later advocate of Froebel's educational system, 
August Kohler, of Gotha), came a few days before the 
assembling of the convention and took part in our pre- 
liminary discussions. He engaged one of Froebel's 
pupils at that time, Sophia Seibt, to be the conduc or of 
a kindergarten he had undertaken to raise. This lady 
subsequently became his wife. 

The loyalty and reliability which were expressed in the 
personality of this man awakened the hope of gaining in 
him a powerful support to the cause, a hope which was 
fulfilled for a short time only, as, alas! he was taken 
from this work by death a few years later. 

Among the expected guests was Director Marquard, 
of Dresden, one of the well-known advocates and vet- 
erans of Froebel's cause, who had already founded a kin- 
dergarten in Dresden, in company with Adolph Franken- 
burg, which was excellently carried on by his wife. 



258 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Marquard was also the first who introduced the method 
into his school, and gave his support to the cause persist- 
ently and faithfully with much activity and self-sacrifice. 

Among the teachers who came were Herr Stangen- 
berger, who at that time prepared the lessons for Froe- 
bel's stick-laying; Herr Posche; Herr Heinrich Hoffmann 
from Hamburg, conductor of a kindergarten there ; two 
young rising naturalists. Dr. Karl Miiller, and Dr. Otto 
Ule, afterwards editor of the widespread periodical "Na- 
ture,' and whose name is now numbered among those 
distinguished in science ; the Consistorial Counsellor, Dr. 
Peter, and Deacon Miiller, both from Meiningen ; and 
many others. From the region around Liebenstein, out 
of city and village, a great number of teachers and some 
clergymen were found, and Minister von Wydenbrugk, 
as he had promised. 

Among the kindergartners who participated (Froebel's 
earlier scholars), I was specially interested in seeing Hen- 
rietta Breymann, orie of Froebel's favorite pupils, who at 
that time had charge of a kindergarten founded by the 
Sattler family in Schweinfurth. I had become acquainted 
with her at the time of my first knowledge of Froebel, 
and was delighted by her amiability, her talents, and her 
zeal for the cause. More and more intimate as time 
went on, we often worked together, especially in Brussels, 
where I invited her during my residence there to under- 
take the instruction in Froebel's method for a six months' 
course, arranged by the suggestion of a number of teach- 
ers, and at the same time to take part in a kindergarten 
instituted there. 

Fraulein Breymann (now Frau Schrader in Berlin, wife 
of the railroad director) is one of those advocates of 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 259 

Froebel's education who hold fast to the method, and 
strive to overcome that which generally in its practice is 
merely mechanical ; and to keep up its true spirit. 

The institution founded by her and her sisters in Wat- 
zum, near Wolfenbuttel, was the first known to me which 
took up Froebel's method for part of its programme, as a 
necessary branch of instruction for general female culture, 
and carried it through successfully. Frau Schrader agreed 
with me in considering the training of the female sex for 
its educational calling in Froebel's method as the first 
condition of making it useful in the general reform of 
education. In this sense she works with her husband, 
who is a true follower and clear-sighted advocate of the 
cause, in our Universal Educational Union, which is striv- 
ing specially to secure the chief end of the reform by the 
complete application of the method. She is also one of 
the decided opponents of the ever wider-spreading super- 
ficiality in the cultivation of kindergartners, which is now 
thought to be a purely mechanical calling, with the time 
of learning the art reduced to a few months, while a year 
is scarcely long enough for the majority of the somewhat 
uncultivated young girls who study it. 

There were also a few kindergartners present from 
other places, beside the pupils then attending the Mari- 
enthal institution, — Fraulein Traberth from Eisenach, 
Fraulein Kramer from Philippsthal, Fraulein Bohmann, 
and some others. 

In the convention which was opened on the morning 
of the 27th, in the hall of the Liebenstein Baths, a warm 
and lively sympathy prevailed, and every individual was 
intent upon expressing recognition of Froebel, and mak- 
ing him forget the injustice of the prohibition. The 



26o REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 

presence and accord of Diesterweg, who took the chair 
on the first day, contributed specially to this spirit, and 
also to make favorable to the cause those who stood a 
little apart from it. 

There was but slight opposition ; and no discord dis- 
turbed the assembly. The majority of the participants were 
penetrated by the conviction that a reform of education was 
incontrovertibly necessary, and that the new foundation 
required was afforded by the method of Froebel. 

After Diesterweg had spoken a few words of welcome, 
he opened the assembly as its chairman, and spoke of our 
work in Berlin. Then followed various reports from exist- 
ing kindergartens by their conductors, in which Froebel 
and Middendorff joined. As Diesterweg had already 
spoken of our activity in Berlin, and as there were many 
discussions, and I was at that time suffering from sore 
throat, I declined making any special communication 
about my personal activity.* 

The statement of his efforts, which Froebel made on 
the afternoon of the first day of the Convention with the 
most peculiar vividness and impressiveness, and with the 
deepest conviction of their value, made a universal im- 
pression and called out great unanimity of opinion. He 
did not enter deeply into the fundamental idea of his 
method that finds so little comprehension, but brought 
out especially the practical side, — the early use of the 
child's powers for manipulation and productive activity. 

The proof of the possibility of leading the activity of 
the child to the elements of all work in its very earliest 
years by playful occupations, was given by a great quan- 

* See further in regard to tliis Convention, in Hanschmann's " Friedrich 
Froebel." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL, 261 

tity of articles from kindergartens, plaited, folded, pricked, 
cut, and drawn with and upon paper and other materials, 
which lay spread out upon the table. They had been 
sent from the various kindergartens and some village 
schools in that region. That teacher from Steinbach 
who had promised Froebel the work of the school-chil- 
dren, had laid out a great variety of figures cut from 
paper, the majority of which were free inventions of the 
village children, and were distinguished by their beauty 
of form, sureness of hand, and neatness of execution. 

" How much might be gained for the universal moral 
improvement of the people," I said to Minister von 
Wydenbrugk, who was sitting near me, " if the sense of 
beauty and skilful ness of hand were cultivated in all the 
village schools ! " 

" Only let all the teachers be prepared for their calling 
as well as those whose children have produced this 
remarkable work of their schools, with their freedom from 
all pretensions," was his reply. 

**Yes," I said; "what the mothers are to do on one 
side and the teachers on the other can alone bring the 
new education into life." 

"But how is it possible," said an unmarried, very highly 
cultivated, and gifted lady who sat near me, "to be so 
uninterruptedly occupied with children and their plays? 
Are these occupations so charming ? " 

"Indeed," I replied, "if it were only the play and the 
mere outward apparatus, the occupation might well be 
tedious. But the idea at the foundation of it, and the 
contemplation of the being of man and its development 
in the child is an inexhaustible mine of interesting dis- 
covery. Originality alone is always interesting, and where 



262 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

is it to be found as in the child ? Then the task of improv- 
ing education is one of the most important tasks of our 
time, particularly for us women, and is truly worth some 
sacrifices. It seems to me to be the holiest duty of 
every one who bears within himself a spark of genuine 
humanity." 

As it was late, the discussion of Froebel's statement 
was postponed till the next day, and the evening was de- 
voted to social intercourse. 

On the following morning, Counsellor Peter opened 
the assembly as chairman, and Froebel's method was 
then thoroughly discussed. 

Middendorff spoke warmly and beautifully upon the 
great influence of women as the educators of humanit}^, 
and invited the kindergartners who were present to take 
part in the discussion, with which request a few of them 
complied. 

The discussion was principally confined to the prac- 
tical application of Froebel's materials without entering 
further into the fundamental idea which contains the germ 
of the whole matter. This was quite natural, considering 
the superficial acquaintance with the subject on the part 
o.f the majority of those present, but it left me somewhat 
dissatisfied with the result of the discussion, which did 
not bring to light prominently what was characteristic 
and really new in the method. 

The many plays of the children of our Liebenstein 
kindergarten in the afternoon of that day did not fail to 
illuminate the most serious faces, and to call forth the 
greatest enthusiasm and applause, to Froebel's great de- 
light ; and when his pupils, in the evening, under the 
guidance of Madame Froebel, executed some of them in 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 263 

the hall, the majority of those present joined in and 
played and sang merrily like the children. Nothing is 
more contagious than the love of play in old and young ! 
Froebel himself took part in conducting, and even Dies- 
terweg entered the ring. No gay ball could have passed 
more pleasantly than the social play of that evening, which 
turned every one back into a child, enjoying the present 
moment in the most innocent manner. 

Diesterweg, who took part in everything "joyfully," as 
he said, turned to me with these words : " Now we are 
all children to-day, Frau von Marenholz, so you must be 
satisfied with us ! " He referred to a remark I had made, 
— how little every one understood Froebel's idea, because 
every one forgets how he had been a child, and what was 
wanting to him as a child. 

Middendorff said : " This is like a fresh bath for the 
human soul, when we dare to be children again with chil- 
dren. The burdens of life could not be borne if it were 
not for real gayety of heart." 

We were all astonished that Froebel, at his years, bore 
this straining of all his powers so long without being 
wearied, when so many claims were made upon him. 
But he met us again the next morning fresh and cheerful, 
and was particularly pleased by the "Declaration" of the 
pedagogues present, in regard to his educational views, 
that had been agreed upon among themselves. 

But the judgment was in too general terms to give 
prominence to the kernel of the matter, and that which 
was really new in it. It could hardly be otherwise, as it 
was impossible in the space of a few hours to throw light 
upon all sides of the subject, and really penetrate to the 
depths of the idea. In spite of this lack it was of great 



264 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

significance that immediately after the prohibition this 
favorable " Declaration " was made public, and was 
signed by men like Diesterweg. 

The points in the " Declaration " were that Froebel's 
educational system was far removed from all partisanship 
and every one-sided tendency ; that it must be looked 
upon as a deeper foundation of both theoretical and 
practical education ; that it promised essentially to ad- 
vance school culture ; and that it had proved itself par- 
ticularly fitted to improve family education through the 
culture of women for their educational calling, which it 
involved. 

These statements under the existing circumstances of 
misapprehension were of the greatest importance, and 
would have gained more for the cause in influential cir- 
cles, if people had not been at that time so much ab- 
sorbed in political matters. 

After the " Declaration " was read the propositions of 
the Assembly were that Froebel should write an essay 
upon his system, publish a " Kindergarten Guide " for 
teachers, and establish a new periodical. 

After Froebel had expressed his willingness to work 
for these ends, the meeting was closed. 

Froebel, alas ! was never able to perform his promises. 
The " periodical " for Fr. Froebel's cause was put under 
the editorship of Director Marquard, and by the co-opera- 
tion of us all was published before the end of the year. 

On the afternoon of the third day of the Convention 
many discussions were held, and the last reports of in- 
stitutions were brought in. 

Those participants in it who did not intend to leave 
the place the next day made a party to visit the sur- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 265 

rounding country, and the two young naturalists, Dr. Ule 
and Dr. Miiller, were invited to speak upon the charac- 
teristic points of nature in Thuringia. 

On the following day, in the clear warm summer 
weather, this excursion to the neighboring mountains 
took place, and well provided with lunches, we made a 
halt in the neighborhood of Gerberstein, in order, after 
taking these refreshments, to hear the promised essays 
of the two naturalists. 

Dr. Ule spoke of the formation of the Thuringian 
mountains, their supposed origin, the law exemplified by 
them, and upon the latest scientific theories of the devel- 
opment of the earth. 

Dr. Miiller spoke of the vegetation of Thuringia, and 
went on to the general development of the plant-world, 
pointing out the connection of their orders and families, 
which showed the trees of the woods and the tiniest 
mosses at their feet to be an unbroken chain of organic 
formation. 

At the close of the essays, a lively discussion of them 
took place among the listeners, who took great interest 
in them. 

The region lying around us on a high plateau in the 
woods, in the midst of broken rocks scattered wildly 
around, surrounded by ancient oaks, beeches, and pine 
forests dressed in their autumnal pomp of coloring, af- 
forded the most fitting place in which to speak of their 
size and their wonders. 

Although Darwin's theory was unknown at that time, 
the discussion of the fundamental principles of the ma- 
terialistic theories of the world had begun, and the pre- 
ludes to this tlieory which for the most part prevails 



2 66 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

now, resounded with old and new hypotheses. Every 
new idea which is expressed finds itself suggested in the 
opinions, presentiments, or suppositions of the atmos- 
phere of the time, before it is concentrated into a focus 
by one mind, and then uttered in a definite form. So 
with the theory of Darwin, which is now turned to base 
uses, and is perverted, by consequences deduced in a 
one-sided manner from it, to the strangest caricatures of 
truth. Every truth becomes absurd when carried out to 
an extreme in a one-sided manner. 

Middendorff, with his deep faith and pious feelings, 
was hurt by some expressions of those present, which 
were in opposition to his religious sentiments, and turn- 
ing to me, he remarked : " How is it possible to speak 
of the wonders of nature, of such a gloriously built uni- 
verse, of the order and connection ruling it, showing the 
wisdom, goodness, and power of the Creator, with aston- 
ishment and conviction, and at the same time to think so 
sceptically of the existence of God and all supersen- 
suous things ! " 

" Yes," I replied ; " one would think the investigation 
of nature more than anything else must lead to the 
irrefragable conviction of God and his eternal reason 
penetrating everything and ruling everything. But we 
see it is not so always, and that even the astronomers 
who investigate the wonders of the universe in all its 
magnificent extent can be sceptics and deny God. Per- 
haps the human mind is not yet far enough developed to 
be able to perceive the various sides of truth at once. 
Even genius cannot comprehend everything. Natural 
science and philosophy are more or less hostile to re- 
ligion, although both investigate the causes of things. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 267. 

It is to be hoped that our time and our eagerness for 
knowledge will give a new impetus, that spirit and nature 
will come nearer to their reconciliation." 

Froebel, who heard the last words, stepped nearer and 
said : " No, that cannot happen yet. Contrasts must come 
forth in their whole sharpness, in order to be connected 
and balanced : you are right ; the mind of the individual 
cannot comprehend everything. We are not so far on 
yet. Each one must work out his own little piece of 
work. When the intellectual working of many races 
shall be brought together and rightly connected, a new 
result will be reached. Then even one-sided views and 
the contradictions growing out of them will be brought 
into harmony. Let the empirics work in their quarries ; 
they will bring treasures to light which are also neces- 
sary." 

" It appears to me," said I, " that the investigators of 
nature who work in the dark mines of the material 
world by the light of their own lanterns, and imagine 
that there is nothing brighter, no sunlight, must some 
time or other break through the surface above, when 
they can no longer deny the brighter light of the 
sun." 

Froebel remarked : " The time has come when man 
must recognize his relations to nature, to the material 
world, and at the same time to the spirit of God which 
rules in them. It is on that account necessary that the 
investigation of mind should be specially active on that 
side, and also in a one-sided manner. The other sides 
of truth will consequently be in the dark, and disappear 
entirely from the eyes of many. The knowledge of the 
recent past is held firmly by others, and alone recognized 
as truth. 



268 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

*' These contrasts evoke the necessary conflicts which 
are demanded for the knowledge of truth. The truth 
is not changed by it ; that remains one and the same, 
but we cannot perceive it in its wholeness and ab- 
soluteness, hence God reveals it but partially to us at 
different times and in different stages of our develop- 
ment." 

" Certainly," I said, " and one part of truth cannot 
contradict another part, since they belong together. 
Therefore, it is always so strange to me that a new truth 
is looked upon as a destroyer of the old one. Many 
now imagine that they must look upon the eternal truths 
of Christianity as overcome and effaced, in order that a 
way may be opened for new scientific discoveries in the 
kingdom of nature, without having the conception that 
every new truth must confirm the old one before it can 
prove itself to be truth. But you are right ; the contra- 
dictions arise out of one-sided comprehension, and it 
may be necessary to real and deeper knowledge that the 
doubt should come up and battle with views, often con- 
fused views, of an earlier recognized truth. The result 
can be nothing else than the victory of truth, or the bal- 
ancing of contradictions by the recognition of every side 
of truth, and the necessary completion of the old view by 
the new one." 

Middendorff replied to this : " The right faith, as I 
understand it, cannot be disturbed by the fragmentary 
and contradictory knowledge of human science. The 
quiet certainty of that which is written in our souls as 
truth, and confirmed by historical revelation, can still 
exist, even if science brings to light seeming contradic- 
tions to it. We know that many such contradictions 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 269 

have been explained, and true science must ever rectify 
itself by further development of its knowledge. 

" I recognize, as Froebel does, the same Divine mind 
in nature as in man and the history of his development, 
and I am also persuaded that we can go no further at 
present without new knowledge of the relations between 
ourselves and our development with that of the Divine 
nature. What I believe and how I believe it is therefore 
in no wise disturbed, and I always think ; surely you will 
also already come to recognize the law in nature and its 
material to be the same Divine law that rules in the 
world of spirit, and which is the law of an all loving and 
therefore self-conscious Father ! " 

" Yes, certainly," I agreed ; " the truths of the natural 
world are a part of religious truth, and it is only the tran- 
sition to a higher knowledge of truth that occasions the 
momentary disagreement between the knowledge of na- 
ture and of God, and sets the revelation in the material 
world in opposition to the revelation in the spiritual 
world. Experience in both domains must lead to simi- 
lar revelation of truth, which remains forever one and 
eternal." 

" How beautifully our young men spoke upon the or- 
ganic connection in the universe ! " said Middendorff. 
" The harmony that is expressed in it should alone be 
enough to testify to the ruling of a holy Providence." 

" It has never come to me more significantly," I re- 
plied, " how Froebel's education must help one to find 
harmony between spirit and nature. If the child's mind, 
through his own outward creative activity, imitates in a 
measure the building-up and development of the uni- 
verse, in that he, starting from simple, solid bodies, per- 



270 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

ceives the material in its most elementary division and 
articulation ; if the awakening mind of the child recog- 
nizes in the concrete world the consecutiveness in mate- 
rial development, and is led from the material body and 
its regular division to the contemplation of the surface, 
from this to the contemplation of the line and to the 
point made visible ; if he learns to see the connection 
of all things, and nothing comes broken and isolated 
before his senses ; if things, from the simplest up to the 
most complex, appear to him fixedly arranged in their 
natural, logical succession, from unity up to manifold- 
ness or plurality, and his own handling of material leads 
to plastic formation, starting from simple fundamental 
forms and rising to ever high linking together of the 
same ; and if his own formations are shaped according 
to one and the same law, — this child's mind must, in 
later stages of development, arrive at the consciousness 
of the organic life imitated by his own hand, and will 
find it again in nature in its most original state of exist- 
ence. And thus he recognizes the agreement between 
the intellectually organic linking of his own being with 
that in the material world. 

"The different ways in which nature and mind express 
themselves, as visible formation in nature and invisible 
formation in mind (by speech), cannot disturb the per- 
ception of their analogy, and as little the less or higher 
degree of their position in the visible creation ; and then 
there can be no more division and contradiction between 
the material and spiritual order of the universe, which 
are never and nowhere separated from each other, but 
only superposed and subordinated to each other." 

We broke up, discussing and disputing on our way 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 27 1 

home, but united in the enjoyment of a beautiful moon- 
light evening in that glorious country. 

After all the guests had departed, Froebel showed the 
effects of the exertion which the Convention, together 
with the work and fatigue consequent upon it, had cost 
him. Yet he was stimulated and made very happy by 
the concurrence of so many intelligent and sensible men 
and specialists, which was very plainly seen in the follow- 
ing weeks that I spent in Liebenstein ; and it occurred 
to no one that this energy and strength of life were to fail 
so soon. 

Froebel's earnest wish that Middendorff should remove 
from Keilhau to Marienthal, in order to devote himself 
entirely to the education of the kindergartners, was the 
more lively on account of the task he had undertaken : 
to prepare for publication a new statement of his system 
in all its relations. He thought he could not undertake 
it without Middendorff's help. 

A correspondence on this subject with the Keilhau 
circle did not, unfortunately, lead to the desired result. 
They could not spare Middendorff from Keilhau. They 
thought if he left the institution, which was flourishing 
anew under the wise and watchful guidance of Barop, it 
would be in a high degree injurious. Therefore Froebel 
had again to practise resignation. And it seemed as if 
his state of feeling, after the examination and recognition 
of his efforts by the convention that had just taken place, 
was one of such new-found repose and inward satisfac- 
tion that the downfall of his hopes in this one case could 
not prostrate him, as it might have done earlier. 



272 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The words Froebel uttered to him on parting, given 
in Middendorff 's little pamphlet, " Froebel's Exit from 
Life," which are also quoted in Hanschmann's biography, 
are so significant of the state of his mind that they are 
worth repeating : " I recognize the unity of my life 
throughout. Such a one has not been known for a 
long time. It has been able to work itself out only by 
rare circumstances. But it is one condition of fulfilling 
the demand of our time. If you go away now, stand 
there, as I stand here, in the same inward unity." 

Many expressions of this kind showed that he was 
approaching the close of a life which he looked upon 
with repose and satisfaction, and recognized as an undi- 
vided whole. And it had been a truly consistent life ; 
for a leading idea had determined its goal, and all its 
action, thinking, and striving, without any hesitation or 
any doubting. 

Froebel and Middendorff accompanied me as far as 
the next post-station. We made a short stay in the shade 
of the wood, in order to rest ; for Froebel seemed to be 
somewhat exhausted, which was not in keeping with his 
usual rare vigor in walking. 

In our conversation, the "Declaration" of the lately 
assembled pedagogues was considered, and I expressed 
my opinion that that which was new, or the 7'iew beginning 
which Froebel's method brings with it, was not made suf- 
ficiently prominent. 

Froebel said to this : "Let well enough alone. What 
we have already reached is much, as things stand. The 
outward and what strikes the eye is the only thing ac- 
cepted at first, but a path is made for a deeper under- 
standing afterward. I once did as you do. I thought 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 273 

every one must have an insight into my fundamental 
idea, — must understand it and concur with it. That 
brought me many disappointments. Now I know that 
it will be centuries before my view of the human being 
as a child, and its educational treatment, can be gener- 
ally accepted. But that no longer troubles me. If the 
seed is sown, its coming up is not far off, and it is the 
same with the fruit." 

" I hope," I replied, " that I shall be able to carry out 
the plan of a General Educational Union, such as we 
have spoken of Then there will be a hope of gaining 
over some minds of intellectual power sufficient to 
understand and prepare the deeper contents of your 
method. I would like above all things to have a short 
7'€sume of your fundamental thoughts, to facilitate my 
own study of your writings. Will you, on the first op- 
portunity, prepare such an one for me ? " 

" Why can I not write everything, — long and short, 
theoretical and practical ! " he answered. " But I will 
think about it, in order to meet your wish, when I have 
had a little rest." 

In the following November, Froebel sent me a short 
statement of his theories, of about forty pages, in one 
of his letters to Berlin, This short and pregnant state- 
ment is, in spite of its quite abstract subject, written with 
great clearness, and was the only one of the kind in ex- 
istence. For this reason it was preserved by me as a 
holy relic. I always carried it about with me in a letter- 
case, in order to preserve it from destruction, by fire or 
otherwise, during my absence. And this very care led 
to its loss ! I left the letter-case in a hotel in Naples, in 
a locked travelling-bag, while I took a short trip to Sor- 



274 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

rento. This bag was stolen. Every search for it was in 
vain. But the contents of the paper were saved in two 
copies of it which I had taken. One of these is still in 
my possession ; the other my friend, Dr. Karl Schmidt, 
took when I initiated him into the doctrines of Froebel. 
He shared my opinion that the time had not come for its 
publication, because the want of a thorough explanation 
of its short propositions would only lead to misunder- 
standings. Froebel himself, in the accompanying letter, 
had also given a special direction in reference to this. 

This second copy was found among Schmidt's effects, 
after his death, in a large portfolio, with a great quantity 
of material for the contemplated popular edition of a 
manual of the Froebelian method, which I had given to 
Schmidt, and was to be furnished with some additions 
by himself. This portfolio, according to an assurance 
of Schmidt's widow, who had concealed it, was put out 
of the way, and has never been found again. 

The contents of the " Froebelian letter," as we were 
accustomed to call it in our little circle, were im- 
parted by me to some of my pupils, particularly to Frau 
Schrader (formerly Fraulein Breymann), with whom I 
have often perused and discussed it. The authenticity 
of the copy is therefore demonstrable. 

After I had had a residence prepared in the upper 
story of the Liebenstein kindergarten building, in order 
to occupy it the next summer, in the hope of being able 
to watch the little pupils of the institution better than 
I could do before, I bade farewell to Froebel and his 
household, to take up the work in Berlin for the winter. 

The picture of idyllic rural and domestic repose which 
Marienthal aftbrded at that time, and the protection and 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 275 

care in which I left Froebel, in view of the watchfuhiess 
and fidelity of his wife, made the parting easy, and free 
from any presentiments that it would be for the last 
time. 

The letters also which I received in the course of the 
ensuing winter from himself and his wife breathed only 
content, and spoke of well-being, with the exception of a 
few trifling ill turns. We were in continuous intercourse 
upon our mutual work for the cause ; and Froebel was 
always greatly pleased with the smallest success gained 
in Berlin, and constantly expressed the most touching 
gratitude for it. This success consisted at that time 
only in the sympathy I won for the method by my regu- 
lar lectures, in consequence of which the number of our 
members increased, and in the undisturbed progress of 
the kindergarten established by our Union, which was 
more and more visited, and more and more won the 
recognition of the parents of the pupils. 

Thus ended the year 185 1, the last throughout which 
Froebel lived. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE YEAR 1852. 

IN the beginning of this year Middendorff wrote me 
that he thought the birthday of Froebel ought to be 
specially celebrated, since the latter had always regarded 
the entrance upon his seventieth year as the most impor- 
tant period of human life, the time for the complete sur- 
vey of one's own as well as of human life in general. 



276 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Middendorff thought the scholarship fund I had under- 
taken to raise for the assistance of needy young women 
who wished to cultivate themselves at Marienthal for kin- 
dergartners would make the most fitting birthday present 
to him. At the same time he asked me if I could pos- 
sibly come to Liebenstein on the day, which would be the 
2ist of April. 

If anything in my activity for the cause ever gave me 
trouble it was this collection ! Since the issue of the 
fatal prohibition, the majority of those who had taken an 
interest in the cause had fallen away from it. How could 
that be called good which had the official ban ? Even 
those who had actually promised aid and immediate as- 
sistance to the cause had withdrawn, especially some 
influential officials who no longer dared to show their 
interest under existing conditions. I was often made to 
feel that people intentionally kept out of my way that 
they might not hear anything said of the forbidden cause, 
or they only uttered evasive phrases if they were reminded 
of their former promised support. In all this it was 
plainly to be perceived that no one could see any ade- 
quate motive for the measure that had been taken, and 
were therefore doubly embarrassed. 

Nor were there wanting apparently just complaints of 
the method as it appeared externally at that time. More 
than ever were heard the most senseless objections which 
were sought after without the least knowledge of the sub- 
ject, in order to cover up the mistake the authorities had 
made, whether consciously or unconsciously. 

Under such circumstances, success in begging for ma- 
terial support was not to be thought of for a cause whose 
aims were ideal, or whose fruits were only to ripen in the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 277 

distant future. So the contributions of those who aided 
my small fund were only sufficient to educate one scholar. 

Moreover, my intention to go to Liebenstein on the 
occasion of the birthday festival, and carry a little work 
as a present, was frustrated by serious illness, and I was 
scarcely able to accompany my offering with a few lines. 

I received from Middendorff a full description of the 
festival, which he afterwards published for the friends, 
together with his account of " Froebel's Departure from 
Life." 

It was destined to be Froebel's last birthday ; a few 
months later his soul celebrated its birth into another 
world ! The last days of this long life of trouble and 
labor flowed on serenely and beautifully, and his letters 
were full of thanks for all the proofs of love which he 
had received. He wrote, " It was indeed very beautiful; 
you ought to have been here ! " 

Middendorffs description of the festival is deeply touch- 
ing, and gives one a glimpse of a human existence which, 
wholly unselfish, belonged to humanity alone, and whose 
influence was so powerful that even the simplest souls in 
the group of his pupils were elevated and made capable 
of true devotion by it. 

The idea of the festival originated with Middendorff, 
but everything was arranged with the pupils and with 
Madame Froebel, and their plans were respected, and 
guided Middendorff even in his poems for the festival. 
The whole breathed the childlike, poetic spirit of 
Middendorff, and of the fresh young circle that 
surrounded Froebel. 

Middendorff said the festal song of the scholars at sun- 
rise waked Froebel, who then with profound emotion spoke 



278 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

to them, recognized the day, and thanked them. As he 
stepped out of his chamber into the lecture-room, he stood 
still on the threshold, taken by surprise, admiring, with 
his eyes beaming with joy, the beautiful decoration of 
the room, which was adorned with flowers in flower-pots, 
festoons, and wreaths, and the table richly covered with 
presents of all kinds. Again the song burst out from the 
semicircle of scholars dressed in white holiday garments, 
ornamented with green wreaths, which expressed the mean- 
ing of the ornamentation, and pointed to the blessing 
which would go forth to the world of childhood out of 
Froebel's work. Then Madame Froebel handed out her 
birthday present, and the scholars followed with an orange- 
tree bearing flowers and fruit, which Froebel had often 
pointed out to them as a symbol of the united ages of 
man in leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit borne at the same 
time, representing childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. 

Then the many gifts which lay spread out upon the 
table, and which were sent by pupils and friends from 
various parts of the world, were brought forward and 
examined. The most striking of these were a copper- 
plate engraving of Raphael's Madonna with the child 
John, a Bible with illustrations by the best artists from 
the Cottaschai Offizin^ — both accompanied with a beau- 
tiful poem, — also a likeness of Pestalozzi and a work 
upon the " Mythology of the North." There were also 
the works of children in kindergartens as well as those 
of teachers, and many from the scholars at Keilhau, all 
accompanied with cordial words of love and honor, in 
poetry and prose. 

From near and far came tokens of harmonious efforts 
to honor and make happy not only the gray old man but 
all around him. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 279 

In the afternoon the children came from the kinder- 
gartens of Salzung and Liebenstein, and accompanied 
the offering of the Httle gifts they had prepared with a 
song, whose childhke, expressive words, sung by the clear 
little voices, deeply moved Froebel. He laid this song, 
with some of the other poems, into a letter which he sent 
me after the festival.* Then followed the children's plays, 
which made Froebel as happy as they did the children. 

He wrote further : " After the children w^ere on their 
way home, at sunset, came the postman with a load of 
letters. Blessings and festal gifts continue to this day to 
come from all the countries round, — from the north, from 
the south, from the Lower Rhine, from the Baltic, from 
great places and from small places." And heartfelt, 
touching words were those with which MiddendorfT ac- 
companied extracts from the letters, which testified to 
the powerful and lasting influence of Froebel's teaching 
upon receptive minds. They had all received a lifelong 
impression, a direction to higher aims than the selfish 
enjoyment of existence, — a power for self-sacrificing 
action in behalf of the ripening of childhood, and a 
consciousness of their womanly dignity through duty 
fulfilled in their chosen calling. 

In the evening the teachers of the neighborhood as- 
sembled with Pastor Riickert and his household around 
Froebel ; the pupils acted a dramatic farce, and then, by 
the wish of all, returned to the representation of the 
kindergarten games, conducted chiefly by Froebel or his 
wife. Before the parting, a closing song (see foot-note) 

* It was inscribed to " Frieclrich Froebel, the founder of the German kin- 
dergartens, April 21, 1S52, offered with sincere gratitude by the kindergarten 
in Salzung." 



28o REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

was sung, and a green wreath placed upon Froebel's 
head by one of his pupils. In a happy and exalted mood 
they then separated. 

Middendorff adds to his highly poetical account, from 
which only a few facts have been taken, the following 
words : " So the day ended as it began, in beautiful 
unity, with thanksgiving, love, and joy. Those who at- 
tended the festival will never lose the remembrance of it. 
For not only in form, but in reality, he has seen, felt, 
and sympathized with an all-sided, consistent life. He 
has known by experience that the expression, ' All-sided 
unity of life,' by which name we have designated the 
training-school at Marienthal, is no empty sound," etc. 

Middendorff's little account of Froebel's last birthday 
and end deserves to be preserved in a larger edition for 
the circle of followers, since it gives such a true and 
warmly colored picture of the life, work, and death of 
Froebel as that of one of the "just." 

Middendorff writes later that, after this festival, Froe- 
bel's life was happier and more tranquil than ever before, 
and that he enjoyed his existence like a child ; afterwards 
that he was disturbed by various communications in the 
daily papers, in which the contending religious parties 
represented Froebel as their intellectual sympathizer, 
although he had never inclined either toward the Christian 
pietists of that period, with their hypocrisy and transcen- 
dentalism, or to the transitory superficial radicalism sup- 
ported by the free societies. His own understanding of 
religion and of Christianity was a far clearer and deeper 
one than these extreme opinions of a time of transition 
to new and higher views. 

On account of his cause, and not for personal justifi- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 28 1 

cation, Froebel felt in duty bound not to leave these false 
assertions uncontradicted. The bodily weakness which 
had come upon him was increased by the composition 
of an article written for this purpose. He could no 
longer, as formerly, collect and write out his thoughts 
tranquilly. 

When he sent me the little essay for my criticism, and 
for the management of its publication in Berlin, I felt 
bound to beg him to abstain from publishing it. The 
article contained no neiv points upon his religious views ; 
it was, rather, the same statement that he had made in his 
former writings in a far clearer and more objective man- 
ner. Both contending parties — still contending down 
to the present time — would have found opportunity 
again to express their views, although Froebel bound 
himself to none of them, while acknowledging what was 
the right«of each one. 

Painful as it was to oppose Froebel's justification of 
himself, yet Middendorfif and Diesterweg agreed with me 
that it was better to prevent the publication of the article 
in question. Froebel himself seemed to see this, and 
requested me to send back the manuscript. 

It is surely, in most cases, not advantageous for great 
minds and thinking men to publish every scrap of their 
writings and every unimportant letter. Their biogra- 
phers should study thoroughly everything they can find 
access to, and select all that appears necessary, but not 
those indifferent letters which show the heroes of mind 
in their nightgowns, and tear away every veil before pro- 
fane and unappreciative eyes. To the public belong 
only the ideal forms of those who have accomplished 
something, not the every-day garment which every one 
wears who is called a man. 



282 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

No one could look more piously upon the bearers of 
divine ideas than Froebel, to whom such an idea was 
intrusted ; no one could recognize the great and eternal 
significance of the Christian idea with more complete con- 
viction, or love its sublime messengers with more rever- 
ence than he. 

Jesus was to him the eternal type of man, the model 
for the humanity of the future, and the Messiah of the 
fundamental truth, " God in humanity." 

Whatever other fundamental truths God might send 
into the world, no one will ever obliterate those con- 
tained in Christianity ; but these must be freed and puri- 
fied of the mere overgrowths and dross added to them by 
the erring human mind. For all truth is eternal in itself^ 
and can only find confirmation and completion by new 
truths ; the human eye cannot see absolute truth, it can 
only approach it. And even those inspired by* God can 
clothe it only in an earthly garment. 

Froebel used to say, when he expressed his views of 
Christianity : " The fundamental idea of Christianity, that 
we are God's children (or that God lives in humanity), 
expressed in the New Testament by the words, ' You are 
of Divine lineage,' explains the relation of man to God 
exhaustively for all times." 

. Those views of modern times which regard the histori- 
cal view of Christianity as a myth poetized by the popular 
mind, as it advances with every new turning-point in the 
world's history, in order to designate the consciousness 
of the period in the instinct of the people, — those views 
could not interfere with his own convictions, but he also 
saw in them a self-contradiction. On the contrary, this 
conception of the eternal fundamental idea of the Chris- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 283 

tian theory can serve only as a confirmation and attesta- 
tion of it, since every great and general truth only im- 
presses itself on the popular mind so far as it clothes 
itself in a poetical form understood by it. This form 
grows indeed with the idea and makes it difficult to sep- 
arate the pure thought from the letter ; indeed, it may in 
time lead to the most absurd conclusions. 

Yet this legend, poetized by the popular mind, is in so 
far the confirmation of the truth of a fundamental idea, 
because thereby is expressed the agreement of the child- 
ishly undeveloped conception of the idea of a given period 
with that of the conscious human mind standing upon the 
summit of the consciousness of the time. 

Then, no truth can be received until the mind of the 
people to whom it is proclaimed has become ripe for it. 
This ripeness appears in different degrees of knowledge, 
from instinct or intuition in the popular mind, up through 
the clear self-consciousness of the cultivated mind, to the 
divine consciousness of the one mind which has been 
chosen by God to proclaim the truth in question. Just 
as little can the modern view of nature in any way 
prejudice the fundamental idea in Christianity. Froebel 
also acknowledged that it was a problem of the time to 
look upon the relation of man to nature and the organ- 
isms below him in a new light, and give it due place. 
The partial views and erroneous conclusions coming to 
the surface in such an investigation are temporary, and 
will be corrected later. True knowledge always rectifies 
itself in the course of its further development. 

But whatever new thing may result from the increasing 
knowledge of the human mind, whatever apparent con- 
tradictions may come to the surface with the truths recog- 



284 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

nized by it, the objects of the truth to be recognized remain 
always the same, namely, God (or the Cause of whatever 
is) ; the universe here (or what man has found and which 
has not arisen out of himself) ; 7nan (as a link in growing 
humanity). Outside of these we know nothing, and no 
human knowledge can go. 

But these three subjects can be apprehended only 
through their mutual relations, namely, 

1. The relation of the material world (as the first thing 
perceivable) to God^ and of God to the world, with 
which the earlier pantheism busied itself, and also mono- 
theism in its first phase (the Mosaic history of Creation). 

2. The relation of man to God and of God to humanity, 
which is the chief subject-matter of Christianity and its 
result, — the establishment of God's kingdom upon earth. 

3. The relation of man to the world, or nature, and of 
this to man, — which constitutes the chief object of knowl- 
edge for the present. 

Froebel's conviction went on to the view that the 
knowledge of one of these relations between the objects 
named cannot possibly annul or even alter the others, 
and it is necessary for the education of the human race, 
under God's guidance, to understand that these relations 
must be seen one after the otherhy the human mind, which 
is not capable of seizing the whole truth at once. 

By this conviction the opinion and the belief are not 
excluded that God sends his truth into the world by minds 
especially chosen for that purpose, or that the revelation 
of truth comes at certain turning-points of their develop- 
ment immediately through inspij-ation. But that truth 
which has been already given must be first made their 
own through the labor of the human mind, science, in 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 285 

order to gain a real recognition of the idea containing 
the truth. But the recognition of each of the three con- 
ditions named forms the synthesis between two of the 
three objects designated. 

According to this view no truth, or fundamental idea, 
which always comes from God himself, can ever be really 
lost, even if it is covered up for a long time. The final 
result of the new truth will always confirm that which 
went before and show it in a better light. 

The faithful votaries of Christianity, have, according to 
this view, nothing to fear for the subject-matter of their 
belief, so far as its spirituality is concerned, either from 
the modern theory of nature, or from the historical view, 
which shall have separated legends from ideas. All in- 
vestigations by the human mind can only serve to uncover 
the truth ; and the contradictions and errors inevitably 
bound up with it, even if they are advocated by several 
generations, have their compensation, and must help the 
light of Divine truth to shine forth more and more clearly. 
And this comes to pass when the kernel of truth is freed 
from the envelope in which it must always come into the 
world for the weak eyes of man. Froeb:il was of the 
opinion that the recognition of truth in the present phase 
of development is not to arise from self-contemplation, 
from which the great majority of philosophical systems 
hitherto have arisen, and by which no firm foundation 
can be gained, since they rest on subjective theories. 
This firm foundation can only be gained from the immu- 
table principle of law in nature, since this alone is objec- 
tive to us. Only in the life of unconsciousness, or instinct, 
which is yet fettered by necessity, can firm ground be 
found, from which, rising to the consciousness of the hu- 



286 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

man mind, its self-contemplation finds a secure, firm basis; 
not indeed to identify spirit and matter and to place on 
the same level the spiritual and natural life, or to let the 
spiritual life arise out of matter, according to the present 
materialistic theories, but to find 3. point of umo7i for both 
domains, which must of course be discoverable in the creation 
of one and the same Creator. 

Froebel finds this point of union in the one universal 
law of creation, to which the manifold and various laws 
of both domains — that of mind (God) and that of na- 
ture (matter) — are to be referred, and indeed in the 
analogy between the two. This law he calls the law of 
the "connection of opposites," which is expressed in the 
material world in the law of gravitation, and which also 
finds its application in the spiritual world in the com- 
pensation of ever-recurring opposites, — in the restora- 
tion of equilibrium. The everywhere perceptible analogy 
between the thought and its material appearance logically 
demands the identity of law in both domains as held by 
Froebel. 

While speculative philosophy moves in the domain of 
abstraction and the absolute, educational philosophy, since 
it has to do with the whole man, must consider the real 
and ideal, the concrete and the abstract, the relative and 
the absolute in connection, for these opposites always 
in fact appear united in the world of phenomena. 

Froebel's educational system concurs with this view of 
the actual idea of the time, and with the inquiries growing 
out of it, which aim at finding the unity between the in- 
tellectual and physical world, or between mind and mat- 
ter, the real and ideal, etc., and thereby get rid of the in- 
flexible and one-sided dualism. Education cannot and 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 287 

should not be dualistic, since it has to support and assist 
the development of body and mind equally, and to look 
upon their harmonious culture as its goal. 

Even if the two fields of activity — philosophical 
knowledge and educational action — are entirely sepa- 
rate, yet children must first read the book which God 
himself has given humanity to read in its childhood, 
namely, the world which he has created, and in which 
he has manifested his divine thoughts. • 

Froebel would awaken and strengthen the eyes of 
children that they may learn to read this book aright. 
Scientific speculation leads to error, if this foundation is 
wanting. If its task has heretofore been to separate 
the spirit of things from their hull, and thereby to make 
them understood, the problem yet remains of again unit- 
ing the spiritual contents with their phenomenal form, 
from which they have been separated, that is, of finding 
the synthesis between these opposites. For the solution 
of this problem Froebel's educational underpinning is 
an absolute necessity. His method will prevent men 
from ever again seeking the impossible, that is to say, 
from standing the pyramid on its apex, by offering ab- 
stract teaching to the child's mind, and to youth philo- 
sophical systems, for which all preliminary conditions are 
wanting. 

The pupils of the new education will be better pre- 
pared than the young have ever before been for taking a 
synthetic view of things, as the present time is striving to 
do. 

This will at least smooth the way for a union between 
the natural sciences and intellectual science, and will by 
degrees bridge over the abyss yet separating the human 



288 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

being and the kingdom of the spirit from the rest of 
God's creations. 

The sketch here given of Froebel's views finds its 
completion in his writings, although not in the summary 
way in which it is offered here. Although these writ- 
ings present no complete system, and although their con- 
tents are in some confusion, and are difficult to under- 
stand on account of their very heavy style of expression, 
they are yet a mine of new thoughts full of genius, which 
only need to be put in order and supplemented by an 
understanding mind, to be assigned as a whole to their 
place in science. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LAST DAYS OF FROEBEL. 

TOWARDS the end of the winter, occasional letters 
from Froebel and his wife informed me of slight at- 
tacks of illness and consequent suspension of work. In 
spite of this, the instruction of his scholars and other 
busy work was but rarely interrupted, and his accus- 
tomed mental vivacity was apparently undiminished. 

At Whitsuntide of that year he received for the first 
time an invitation to participate in the Teachers' Con- 
vention which was to meet in Gotha. He wrote me very 
joyfully upon the occasion, and took it as a proof that 
his cause had secured increased estimation in the teach- 
ers' world. 

Middendorff gave an account of the Convention as he 
received it from Froebel's wife. When Froebel entered 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 289 

the Convention, in the midst of a discourse, the whole 
assembly rose. At the end of the discourse the presi- 
dent of the meeting gave him a hearty welcome, followed 
by three cheers from the whole assembly. Froebel 
thanked them in a few simple words, and immediately 
taking up the subject in hand, which was " Instruction 
in the Natural Sciences," was listened to with profound 
attention. 

After the Convention, Froebel was made specially 
happy in the garden of a friend of nature in Gotha, 
where he examined almost every group of flowers, and 
happily and gratefully acknowledged all the good things 
that were offered him. 

In the kindergarten of Gotha he explained the intel- 
lectual significance of some of his occupation-materials. 
In the evening he took part in a reunion of the friends 
of his cause, although he was somewhat exhausted by 
the excitement of the day ; he spoke of the importance 
of the kindergarten for the female sex, and the duty of 
teachers to learn to understand it on its own theory, and 
prepare for its introduction into the schools. 

While he was on the journey to Gotha he had been 
rather quiet and reserved, but on the way home he ap- 
peared cheerful, well, and communicative. 

On the 6th of June came the attack of his last illness, 
and Froebel thought he saw in it a crisis that would end 
in recovery. During his last illness his repose and cheer- 
fulness never left him for a moment, and he took part in 
and enjoyed everything, particularly when flowers were 
brought him. He once said on such an occasion, " I 
love flowers, men, children, God ! I love everything ! " 

The highest peace, the most cheerful resignation, were 



290 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

expressed, not only in his words, but in his face. The 
former anxious care to be active in his life-task resolved 
itself into trust in Providence, and his spirit looked joy- 
fully in advance for the fulfilment of his life's idea. 

On the Sunday before his death, a favorite child came 
to bring him flowers ; he greeted her with unbounded 
delight. Although it was difficult for him to lift his 
hand, he reached it out to her, and drew the child's little 
hand to his lips. 

The care of his flowers he recommended in these 
words : " Take care of my flowers and spare my weeds ; I 
have learned much from them." And in his very last 
hours he asked again for flowers. The window must be 
opened frequently, and he brightened up visibly at the 
aspect of nature, and often repeated the words, " pure, 
vigorous nature "; and at another time, "Always hold me 
dear," also, " I am not going away, I shall hover round 
in the midst of you." He spoke much about truth to 
Barop, who had come with the teacher Clemens, saying, 
among other things, " Remain true to God." 

He asked them to read his godfather's letter, which in 
Thuringia, according to old custom, was given to the 
baptized child by the godfather, and contained the con- 
fession of Christian faith. In some places he exclaimed, 
'* My credentials ! my credentials, Barop ! " especially at 
the passage in the confession " from this time forth our 
Saviour will confide in thee in- justice, grace, and mercy." 
For the third time he cried out aloud, " My creden- 
tials ! " at the words, " Let my son hear ! look upon and 
hold with immovable truth to thy soul's best friend, who 
is now thine." It was as if he would say, " To him have 
I been consecrated from the beginning of my life, and I 
have never in my life neglected this bond." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 29 1 

One could see how earnestly his Christianit}^ dwelt 
within him, little as he was ordinarily accustomed to 
speak of it. Thus he said in the Teachers' Convention 
at Rudolstadt : " I work that Christianity may become 
realized." Another time he said : "Who knows Christ? 
But I know him, and he knows me. I will what he wills. 
But we must hold to his testament, the promise of the 
Spirit." He repeatedly admonished the friends around 
him in Keilhau " to preserve unity, concord, and peace ; 
to lead a model life, as one family, in a united striving. 
" Have trust in God ; be true to life ! " And ever and 
again he expressed love and thanks to those around 
him. At midnight of the 21st of June the last moment 
approached. His eyes, which had been closed for rest, 
were partially open. He was in a sitting posture, as if 
his wish to find his last rest sitting up was to be fulfilled. 
His breathing became shorter and shorter, till, at half 
past six, he drew two long breaths, and all was still. 

So quietly, without a struggle and without a death- 
throe, ended a life which had at no moment served 
selfish interests, but was devoted wholly and completely 
to humanity, and to childhood in humanity. 

Middendorfif added to his communication about Froe- 
bel's last moments : " It involuntarily drew us who stood 
around the death-bed to our knees. We felt near the 
consecrated one. Never was the awe of death so effaced 
to me. I had felt something similar to it at the death of 
a beloved child. Nature made her last struggling efforts, 
and then stood still untroubled. The mind, clear to the 
last, fervent, joyful, and loving, went home like a child 
to its pure source ; a life well-ordered in all directions, 
united within and without, was fulfilled and closed. 



292 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

What he loved so much, and so often gazed upon on a 
clear evening, — the going-down of the sun, — he him- 
self represented. As the sun sinks to our eyes, so sinks 
to our eyes the light of his being; and as, at sunset, I 
have no thought of its passing away, but only of its 
receding from view, and thereby know the certainty of 
its return, so I felt here in sorrow the certainty of the 
eternal duration of life. Yes, true is the promise, — 
' Death and lamentation shall be no more.' As he 
often, when plunged in meditation, penetrated to the 
light of a new thought, so his mind, freed from all limi- 
tations and absorbed in his inmost soul, in his own being 
and life, penetrated to a new existence, — to the light of 
another day. 

"O, what stillness, what deep stillness, now! Con- 
secration and holiness breathed around me. I felt joy 
in the midst of my pain ! He who stood so near to 
nature, and not only saw, contemplated, and investigated 
it, but who was sunk in it as a child in purest love on the 
breast of a mother, — he had followed its teachings, 
trusted implicitly its laws and holy commands, had not 
been deceived in his hopes ; and how it had rewarded 
his love. In his illness, he had been as quiet and gentle 
as a lamb. He scarcely allowed an expression of pain 
to be heard ; no murmuring, no unwillingness, was per- 
ceived. True son as he was to Nature, so was she his 
true mother, who took him softly and lovingly into her 
arms. 

" But how could he have trusted her so well, if he had 
not clearly known who she was, — if he had not known 
who inspired her and penetrated her, who governed her 
and wrote her laws, held her together in unity and self- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 293 

consciousness, and kindled intelligence of her in the 
human mind ? How could he have been so serene, if 
he had not known himself to be a son of that Almighty 
One, — if he had not recognized and known the first of 
men who lived this unity of the Son with the Father, and 
had not felt himself one with him in all his striving? 
How could he have been so cheerful, if he had not car- 
ried within himself the knowledge that the conscious- 
ness of the Sonship of this only One would break forth 
by degrees in all sentient beings, and thus the conscious 
unity and salvation of the minds for which he lived and 
struggled would surely and certainly appear ? Therefore 
were his last words to his friends the prayer with which 
he closed his work upon earth, — 'God, Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. Amen.' 

" My soul was full of thanksgiving for the favor vouch- 
safed to me that I could close the eyes and bestow the 
last cares upon him to whom my dying father had com- 
mended me, and who had received me upon his breast. 
How grateful it was to my heart that it was my duty to 
be so near, at his last moment, in his last battle, to him 
whom I had accompanied so long in life, with whom I 
had fought the battle, with whom I had, for a time, 
worked and suffered the heaviest trials ! Chiefly was I 
thankful because I saw this life end as it had begun, — 
because I saw that he was what I had heard and believed 
him to be, and that he remained wholly in unison with 
himself; for to the last moment was revealed this repose 
springing from inward concord, — this clearness, truth, 
and unity. As he himself characterized it, 'One must 
himself perfect his life to a ripe fruit.' And so his life 
dropped as a ripe fruit from the tree of the life of hu- 



!94 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEEEL. 



manity. So can and also will be fulfilled what he said : 
' The age of ripeness is coming.' And again : ' The 
fragrant flower has withered, but the fruit has set which 
will now ripen. Behold in it three in one, — the connec- 
tion with the earlier time, the steady advance in the pres- 
ent, and the seed of the future.' " 

Of the burial-service Middendorff said : *' The bier, 
adorned with garlands of flowers and a laurel crown 
made by the wife and pupils, stood in the place where 
lately Froebel's bed had stood. All gathered round to 
look once more upon the beloved friend, and to gain an 
ineffaceable impression of the dear features. No trace 
of pain was to be found upon the countenance ; a holy 
earnestness and inward cheerfulness shone forth from it. 
It was a look of introspection united with a light, blissful 
smile. The countenance showed an extraordinary ten- 
derness. The lips were slightly open, as if his mouth 
would pronounce the secret of the other world, — as if it 
said, ' I see in light what I have here seen darkly. Be- 
lieve, follow the truth ; it leads to freedom, to bliss. 
There is something striking in standing before such a 
countenance ; the soul becomes a prayer. We sank 
upon our knees. ' O might we all die like him, and 
rest in the grave with such a certainty ! ' was the expres- 
sion of one of the bystanders. The bier was carried out 
first through his workroom, where he had labored with 
unwearied industry, often half through the night, for 
those near and far, under the impulse of the living idea 
in himself and his all-encompassing love for humanity ; 
past his beloved flowers, of which he took such care, and 
which, as if from gratitude, made plain to him the highest 
truths, like his yet dearer pupils, the children ; then 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 295 

through the sitting-room, where Pestalozzi seemed to 
call to him from his portrait, — ' Slowly, step by step, 
will be laid the sure foundation for the temple of pure 
humanity,' — and the divine Madonna looked at him 
as with thanks that he had so deeply divined her 
heart's desire, and shaped it into deed and love for all ; 
and finally through the lecture-hall, where his scholars 
had listened with rapt attention to his words, which kin- 
dled them to their high calling, — where strangers from 
north and south had thronged together, and from whence 
they had gone possessed by the might of truth. As one 
said, ' He does not preach like the learned, but his 
speech is powerful'; and many of these have widely 
borne the seed with his motto, ' Come, let us live with 
our children ! ' 

" The garlanded bier was set down in the spacious 
vestibule, to be strewn with wreaths and flowers by the 
numerous children. All, even the smallest, tried to show 
their love and gratitude to him once more. 

" But not only children came ; friends, known and un- 
known, pressed forward to show their esteem and rever- 
ence ; the teachers of the country round about, one and 
all, kindergartners and those he had befriended, came 
even from a great distance, invited by their own hearts 
to that solemn day. 

" The teachers united in a solemn song:, in moving^ 
tones. Then the train was set in motion towards the 
churchyard of the village of Schweina. 

" A heavy shower fell while it was on the way, so that 
we were obliged to stand under shelter for a long time. 
Parson Riickert remarked, ' Even his last journey is 
through storm and tempest.' 



296 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

" When the procession was again set in motion, and 
passed over the bridge of the brook, Ernst Luther, a 
descendant of the great reformer, whom Froebel and his 
brother had educated gratuitously in Keilhau, out of re- 
gard for his ancestor, said, ' Thirty-five years ago to-day 
he here led me by the hand through Schweina.' 

" The bells of the village church began to toll ; it was 
so earnest and sacred, as if these solemn peals called 
him to come up into the land of the blessed, and said 
with their voices that the night had passed, that we should 
hasten to follow his onward, conquering banner, and 
build the new world by means of the children ! At the 
gate of the churchyard the teachers took the bier upon 
their shoulders, to carry it to the place prepared for it. 

" The newly laid out churchyard, situated outside the 
village upon an eminence, has a singularly beautiful loca- 
tion. The town lies half concealed in verdure, at the 
foot of a tower which rises up alone, like a finger-post 
pointing to heaven ; the whole glorious country lies 
spread out before the eye like a living picture. At the 
left, Altenstein, with the summer dwelling of the ducal 
family, stretches out its high hand with noble grace, as 
if protecting the young colony, showing by its act that 
it truly reverences the cross which is erected in mem- 
ory of Bonifacius, the earliest promulgator of Chris- 
tianity here. Directly in front stands the old castle of 
Liebenstein whose name has a good sound near and far 
for its healing springs ; and on the right, shaded with 
lofty poplars and surrounded by green meadows and 
waving fields of grain, with the murmur of clear waters 
streaming from the rock of Altenstein, the quiet, lovely 
Marienthal, the seat of peace, of untiring work for the 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 297 

worthiness and the unity of life, consecrated by him who 
had now come to this spot for undisturbed rest and har- 
mony. 

" Notwithstanding the storm and the rain which still 
continued, a large part of the community had assembled, 
and mothers and fathers, maidens and youths, and nu- 
merous children stood around the open grave. The 
venerable old burial-hymn, 'Jerusalem, thou lofty city,' 
was sung. Then Pastor Riickert began his address at 
the grave, and at that moment the rain ceased. The 
address began with the following words : — 

" ' Up to the lofty city of God soars the spirit of the man 
whom we now, grieving, gaze after ; far above mountain 
and valley it soars over all and hastens from this world. 
Loved, honored, admired, praised by some, misunder- 
stood, misapprehended, calumniated, condemned by 
others, he soars over all. The body which for seventy 
years served this rare spirit as a vigorous instrument, 
after the last spark of this richly active and remarkable 
life has gone out, shall now rest here in the churchyard 
of our community, which with pride counted the great 
man among its citizens ; in sight of this mountain which 
Jie not long ago climbed with eagerness, of this house of 
God where he celebrated with us piously the feast of 
Pentecost, of the lovely Marienthal where the noble old 
man had found in the evening of his days a peaceful 
refuge for his philanthropic activity. 

" ' Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from 
henceforth, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors ; and their works do follow them.' These words 

belong to our dead also Yes, this is one who 

died in the Lord. He has lived in the Lord, therefore 
he has also died in the Lord, sweetly and happily.' 



298 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

The following passages from this discourse may be 
added here : — 

" The fame of knowledge was not his ambition. Glow- 
ing love for mankind, for the people, left him neither rest 
nor quiet. After he had offered his life for his native 
land in the wars of freedom, he turned with the same 
enthusiasm which surrenders and sacrifices for the high- 
est thought, to the aim of cultivating the people and 
youth, founded the celebrated institution at Keilhau 
among his native mountains, and talked, and planted 
in the domain of men's hearts. And how many brave 
men has he educated, who honor his memory and bless 
his name ! . . . . But then the thought came to him that 
the educators of men must imitate the creative and pro- 
ductive divinity in nature, which prefigures and deter- 
mines the future plant in the tenderest germ, shields and 
protects it carefully, out of the smallest and simplest, 
gradually and step by step develops the highest and the 
noblest ; that the body and soul of the tender little one 
shall be brought from the earliest childhood under a 
more intelligent and more careful nurture than has been 
done heretofore, when children were sent to school 
already corrupted in body and soul ; and that, above all,- 
this loving nurture should be trusted to the tender hand 
of women, whom the heavenly Father has created for this 
maternal calling ; and to found such kindergartens, and 
to train such kindergartners, was henceforth his whole 
endeavor, from which he hoped with full confidence for 
the future salvation of humanity and the deliverance from 
manifold bodily and spiritual ills 

" To this high aim he now sacrificed all his powers, his 
property, his time, his repose. And perhaps children of 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 299 

his own were denied him by the decree of the Eternal 
Wisdom, that he might not be bound and limited by 
cares for his own, that he might see and love in the 
poorest human child the child of God, and in the eye of 
every child might read the command, ' Thou shalt take 
care with all thy strength that the divine image be not 
defaced or distorted ; thou shalt, with all thy gifts, work 
and help that it be preserved and shaped more purely 
and beautifully, and that not the least of these be lost/ 

" For this he labored now ; he moved about unceasingly 
teaching and working, imitating the Master, who had not 
where to lay his head ; gathered unto himself little chil- 
dren, and laid his hand upon their heads and said, ' Suf- 
fer little children to come unto me, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven.' For this he labored into the late 
evening of his life, and thereby the venerable old man 
himself was made young again amongst the playing chil- 
dren. For this he lived, for this he suffered, and regard- 
less of the cry ' Hosanna/ or ' Crucify him,' he took his 
cross patiently, and bore it after his Master, and sub- 
mitted trustingly to abuse, calumny, and persecution, and 
Christ-like, pardoned the deluded ones who knew not 
what they did, since he knew well that the disciple was 
not above his Master. However, the mental excitement 
and effort which these struggles cost him contributed to 

break up the vitality of the vigorous old man So 

have we too, among whom he spent the last years of his 
life, learned to know and to love this guileless soul, this 
pure, childlike nature ; you will all bear witness, even if 
you did not hear his last pious words, this our dead died 
in the Lord, for he lived for the Lord. Henceforth, lack 
of understanding and misunderstanding will no more 



300 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

afflict thee. Just souls are in the hands of God, and no 
pains touch them. Thou hast now found peace, and 
heaven, which thou didst foreshadow among thy dear 
little ones in the vale of earth, now surrounds thee with 
its purified indwellers, whose image our innocent children 

are The fruits of thy toil wilt thou there enjoy ; 

from the abode of holy spirits thou wilt look with trans- 
port upon the plantation which thou hast founded upon 
earth. And here too shall thy works not perish. Works 
like these, instituted out of pure love to God and to man, 
without selfishness and ambition, are wrought in God and 
cannot perish. Thy work will be continued. If thou art 
now laid to rest, others will rise up and carry on the work. 
The seed which thou hast sown will, ripening in quiet, 
always bring richer and richer harvest for the salvation of 
mankind. May the earth which rises over thy grave, 
pious soul, rest lightly upon thee, and when moss and 
turf grow green, and flowers bloom over this heart which 
beat so warmly for its brothers ; when the little ones with 
whom thou didst play shall have grown gray, then will 
posterity bend its steps to this pleasant burial-spot, and 
crown it with garlands, and some strong man will tarry 
here thoughtfully, thanking and blessing thee, and the 
spirit within him will say, ' Here a great, noble heart rests 
from its work ; it has labored for the earhest childhood 
and for the latest future ; labored in hope, and its hope 
was not lost, — his works follow after him.' 
I quote again from Middendorff's letter : — 
" The teachers sang the song, ' Rest softly,' etc. Then 
the coffin was lowered into the grave, which was filled 
with flowers. The heavens had withdrawn their dark 
curtain, and the sun shone down into the open grave. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 301 

I Stepped forward and said : ' If thy ear were not closed 
and thy mouth not dumb, thy Hps would now open and 
thou wouldst exult over what thou hast heard, that that 
of which thou wert so certain has already been fulfilled, 
even though in a small circle, — the acknoivledgment of 

the truth proclaimed by thee Even thy last journey 

was through storm and tempest, as has been already said. 
Thou hast taken the storm and the heavy way for thy 
companions, and hast reminded us what journeys thou 
didst make through thy whole life in night and tempest, 
and what heavy ways thou hast travelled for us. Thou 
permittest us now to proclaim the not-to-be-forgotten 
truth that he who is with thee, and will follow thee, must 
be ready to follow thee through storm and through toil 
and hardship; must be ready for what thy life has taught, 
* Througli conflict to victory I ^ Thou hadst not merely the 
courage to pledge thy life in war, in peace also hast thou 
pledged it again and again, and joyfully hast sacrificed 
all to thy cause. 

"Thou didst often say, 'I like the storm; it brings 
new life ' ; the lightning which on our way here flashed 
out of the cloud shall remind us that the darkness which 
still obscures the time can be rent and illuminated by a 
mighty ray ; it reminds us how thy words, thy inspired 
action, fell like a fire-flame into the dark heart, sum- 
moned the sleeping conscience to awake, and made clear 
to itself the darkened mind. Does not one (the descend- 
ant of Luther) stand here by my side, who feels now in 
his heart, with burning thanks, how thou didst lead him 
many years ago in the path of a worthy existence ? Will 
not many of those present confess that thou hast thrown 
into their minds a kindling and illuminating torch, hast 
opened up to them new ways of culture, and hast fur- 



302 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

nished them the means of turning the kindled thought 
into act? and for how many maidens in the night of an 
embittered existence hast thou Hghted the star of a better 
hope, and cast the saving rope into the dangerous breakers 
and drawn them to the green shore of child-nurture? .... 

"Thou callest upon us: 'You are my last witnesses, be 
my true disciples and heralds ; be the true little band which 
shall always increase, and which the greater one shall join. 
Think of me and my words ; He who was with me will 
be with you, and will give you courage and strength as 

he has vouchsafed it to me, even to the grave 

Thank me by silence and action, by a deeply penetrat- 
ing insight and a united creative practice.' .... There 
stand the mothers with their nurslings in their arms, 
their children by their sides, who bear witness that thou 
hast smoothed the way to the minds of men not only by 
the fire of thy speech, but also by the tones of song with 
which, like the delicious, caressing wind and the fresh 
morning breeze, thou hast imbued the hearts of the 
mothers. 

" Now a song I had written for the occasion was sung, 
which was followed by the sacred hymn, 

" Rise again, thou shalt rise again." 

" The pastor said, as he threw a handful of earth into 
the grave, ' May God grant to each of us such an end 
as that of this just man.' 

"As the bystanders repeated this act, Luther cried with 
a loud and agitated voice into the grave, ' I thank thee, 
too.' 

" The scholars threw flowers upon flowers into the 
grave; one took her bouquet from her breast and threw 
it in; then I cast in my song also, as the last gift. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 303 

"Mutually consoled, we separated quietly, and with 
inward confidence, to go in our various directions; and 
over the minds and feelings of all spread the wings of an 
exalted peace." 

Thus Middendorff ended his communication, which 
certainly deserves not to be forgotten, and perhaps leaves 
upon others the same elevating impression which it has 
made again and again upon me, and upon many followers 
and pupils. 

« 

Only on this day of his burial did I learn the sad news, 
for which I was somewhat prepared by a short letter giv- 
ing notice of his illness. My own illness and domestic 
circumstances had delayed me, but I was on the point 
of starting for Liebenstein when the afflicting news was 
brought me at Pilnitz by Director Marquard. We, his 
disciples and scholars, could scarcely believe that that 
life recently so strong and serenely happy was ended; 
that the new education had now lost its champion. It 
scarcely seemed possible to insure its continuance with- 
out him. It seemed in the first moments as if all sank 
together, and to the thousand unspoken questions which 
we still wished to ask, the answer could never come. . . . 

" What will now become of the cause ? " were my 
first words to Middendorff, when I arrived at Liebenstein 
on the 2d of July, 1852, and everything there, still more 
in Marienthal, seemed deserted and dead. 

"We will work with all our powers," answered Mid- 
dendorff. " Truth is not lost." 

The residence in the house of the Liebenstein kinder- 
garten, in which I intended to pass the summer months, — 



304 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

for many years, as I had hoped, — in order to learn more 
from Froebel, and to labor with him in his work, was 
now useless, and would have to be given up. Mature con- 
sideration by Middendorff and Froebel's widow showed 
that the continuation of the institution in Marienthal was 
impracticable. It could not continue without Midden- 
dorff's direction and instruction, and that was indispensa- 
ble at Keilhau. After much parley we all agreed that the 
removal of the kindergarten training-institution to Keil- 
hau could not be prevented, and must take place in the 
late autumn, after the course for the present scholars 
should be completed. 

Until that time the present pupils were to be taught 
in Marienthal by Middendorff and Madame Froebel. 
Among these pupils were some gifted and intelligent 
natures, especially Ruwada Goose, whom Froebel par- 
ticularly esteemed, who took hold of the subject with 
great zeal, and who has always remained true to it, and 
is at present occupied as the directress of a kindergarten 
of her own in Wilhelmshafen. She was descended, on 
the mother's side, from a Turk, and possessed a peculiar, 
quick power of apprehension that particularly attracted 
Froebel. 

Middendorff devoted his whole time and strength to 
this instruction through the summer, assisted by Madame 
Froebel, who taught the scholars the practical occupa- 
tions. Although deeply afflicted by the sad, irreparable 
loss of her husband after only one year's married life, 
she fulfilled the task, now become so much more difficult, 
with the greatest conscientiousness, firmly resolved to de- 
vote her whole strength to it in order to preserve and 
promote the work already begun. At the same time she 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 305 

remained an affectionate, motherly friend and guardian 
to the pupils. 

Froebel's grave was still without a monument, and we 
consulted, immediately after my arrival, how that should 
be cared for. After long consideration, Middendorff 
proposed Froebel's Second Gift ; to place upon the 
grave, one upon another, the cube, the cylinder, and the 
sphere. I was of the opinion that the three objects 
should be so placed that the sphere should rest upon the 
cube, and the cylinder should lean upon them, in order 
to avoid the impression of stiffness ; but we adhered at 
last to Middendorff's proposal. 

Unfortunately, the amount contributed by Middendorff, 
and the equal amount added by myself, did not suffice 
for setting up a monument of large size, and of granite. 
We were compelled, therefore, to be satisfied with sand- 
stone as material, and the objects of a smaller size, hoping 
that the time would come when a monument worthy of 
Froebel, as a benefactor of mankind, would be erected. 
On the plain gravestone, provisionally erected by us, 
Froebel's motto was engraven, " Come, let us live with 
our children." On a walk to the churchyard we enjoyed 
anew the splendid prospect from Froebel's grave, and 
thought that no monument could so adorn the place as 
nature had done. 

On this spot Middendorff related to me many particu- 
lars of Froebel's last moments : how he had never in his 
life been so tender ; how joyfully he occupied himself with 
the future, when in moments of hope it appeared to him 
again and again that he might recover ; how deeply con- 
vinced he was that his work would live, would develop, 
and would bring the expected blessing, — the blessing 



3o6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

that new and better men would be raised up by a new 
and better beginning of human hfe. 

" It is certainly permitted to spirits in the other world 
to have an influence on the work they have left behind," 
I said, " through the men of like thought who were asso- 
ciated with them in life. Besides, one can scarcely im- 
agine a future life in which there is a change from the 
earlier to entirely new interests. Still less can one think 
of a higher existence without activity. Therefore I be- 
lieve that God grants to mortal spirits, after their death, 
a part in the government of the earth, so far as they 
deserve it. Perhaps God shares the government of the 
world with the higher spirits, — those called ' angels ' by 
the popular belief, — and they descend to us like the 
sunbeams, and influence our spirits as they awaken ter- 
restrial life." 

"I, too, think as you do," said Middendorfif. "The 
idea of a complete separation between here and there 
would contradict the unbroken continuity of the world, 
and the union of all life, through the all-pervading spirit 
of God." 

The instruction of the scholars now claimed all Mid- 
dendorff's interest and took all his strength. With what 
love and tenderness, moreover, did he address the young 
maidens ! With what inspiration did he awaken their 
enthusiasm, always referring to the departed friend who 
had devoted his life to putting into practice the idea 
committed to him by God ! 

But besides taking part in the theoretical instruction, 
he played the movement plays, prepared by Madame 
PVoebel, with the scholars, and often, also, with the chil- 
dren in the Liebenstein kindergarten. Whoever saw him 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 307 

there was charmed by the touching, childHke simpHcity 
of the white-haired man. The visitors whom I brought 
to Marienthal, or into our kindergarten, often said to me, 
" If one knew nothing of Froebel's education, and only 
saw MiddendorfT playing with the children, he would be 
won over to the cause." 

The physician at the Baths of Liebenstein, whom I 
questioned in regard to Froebel's last days, said, " I have 
seen many men die, but never any one who looked into 
the face of death so cheerfully and so calmly as Froebel." 

" One day," he continued, " he asked me what I 
thought of his condition, and whether he could live a 
short time longer. I thought I ought to speak the real 
truth, and was able to do so, to him. I advised him not 
to postpone his last directions, since the failing of his 
powers left little hope of recovery. He took my words 
with the greatest calmness, and I did not notice the least 
change in his countenance. 

*' When I went to him on the following noon, they told 
me that he had added some last directions to his will 
that morning. At the door of his chamber I heard a 
low singing, like the chirping of the birds which were 
singing out of doors, and when I entered, I found Froe- 
bel sitting up in the bed, which was pushed up to 
the open window, looking with glorified joy on the 
landscape before him and singing softly to himself To 
my remark, ' You appear to be better. Professor, and 
to be. more cheerful,' he replied, 'Why should I not? 
I enjoy beautiful nature even in my last moments.' I 
never found him, on my visits, impatient, complaining, 
or even discojitented. He was a rare man ! " So spoke 
his physician. 



3o8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Middendorff's favorite recreation after severe labor 
was to walk in the beautiful neighborhood of Marienthal, 
and he was accompanied by the scholars, and often by 
Madame Froebel and myself He came to me frequently 
in the evening, and we then discussed how Froebel's 
work could be best continued by us. The giving up of 
Marienthal was the hardest thing, especially for Madame 
Froebel, who had become attached to the place. 

Middendorft' often said, " You, Madame von Maren- 
holz, must undertake the spreading it in foreign coun- 
tries ; we others cannot do that, and, you know, Froebel 
always desired it." 

"I see plainly," I answered, "that this will be necessary, 
if people continue to misapprehend and persecute the 
cause in Germany, and yet I would much prefer it if we 
could establish something regular here at home, and then 
be able in other countries to point to a model institution 
here. But my courage fails when I hope for that, when 
I consider the condition of affairs at Berlin, where the 
reaction is always on the increase, and people think our 
cause must be cast among the things ' which shake society 
in its foundations.' You don't know how absurdly the 
fear of being out of favor with the ruling class shows 
itself, when I ask people to undertake the defence of our 
educational cause. 

" For these reasons it appears to me that we must 
seek to gain over foreign countries, so that we may open 
the way from them for the cause in Germany. How sad 
that it is so, and that there is so little independence in 
our own country ! As soon as my personal affairs per- 
mit, I will see what can be accomplished abroad. 

" I think it must be possible some time to establish an 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEREL. 309 

International Educational Union, which may gradually 
unite all civilized nations in the maintenance of Froebel's 
method. The care of parents for the education of their 
children is the same in all countries, and ought to over- 
come all differences of political and religious views and 
interests." 

This idea of such an educational union was, even at that 
time, often discussed by us, and never was forgotten in 
my activity. I looked upon Berlin as the starting-point 
for its consummation, and therefore my activity in foreign 
countries always brought me back there. But, alas ! the 
favorable conditions which existed there later did not 
then permit the accomplishment of this plan. Hostile 
opposition from parties from whom I had the fullest right 
to expect every encouragement, rude interference from 
incapables, and the like, induced me, after some at- 
tempts, to desist and to give up Berlin. 

What failed there succeeded, in 1870, in Dresden, from 
which the General Educational Union now casts out its 
net, to plant the educational idea of Froebel on all sides. 
The Union at present counts twenty branch unions, and 
gives, in the institution of its Froebel foundation^ an op- 
portunity to many poor girls to get instruction in Froe- 
bil's educational doctrines, and by its application in fam- 
ilies and in kindergartens to occupy themselves usefully 
and happily, and at the same time to find their means of 
livelihood. 

The next century will perhaps see realized the idea of 
an international association, for the purpose of true hu- 
man education. 

In our time a narrow particularisjn^ both of race and 
of individuals, which understands no interests but per- 



310 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

sonal ones, impedes the complete accomplishment of this 
idea. 

The summer of 1852 passed very quiedy. I mingled 
but litde with the summer visitors, among whom there 
were this year no distinguished or well-known notabili- 
ties. Diesterweg could not come, and the Duchess Ida, 
whom I saw almost daily, broke up her stay this year 
earlier than usual, in order to go with her daughters to a 
watering-place, and thence to Holland to her husband, 
Duke Bernhard Von Weimar. Few visitors came to 
Marienthal this year, and our circle was very small. 
But Middendorff's fresh spirits and almost always quiet, 
cheerful disposition enlivened it, and kept every one in 
good temper. 

But we had a visit from an old friend. Dr. Schewe, 
who had been in Liebenstein two years before, and had 
then visited Froebel in Marienthal, and examined his 
head. Froebel had never given any attention to phre- 
nology, but was nevertheless of the opinion that it could 
not but be true that the organs of the human brain 
should show the stamp of the mind, which they served 
as an instrument. 

When, at that time, I informed Froebel of the visit of 
Dr. Schewe, whose acquaintance I had made during the 
previous winter in Berlin, and from whom I had received 
some instruction in phrenology, Froebel expressed his 
pleasure at being able to know something more of the 
subject. He listened to Schewe's explanations with 
lively interest, and agreed with him, that education might 
derive great benefit from this branch of knowledge, if 
its results were completely and scientifically established. 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 3II 

Froebel said : " What we use is in some way or other 
influenced and changed by the use, or else is used up. 
The special kind of work which we perform affects the 
form of our hands decidedly. The hand of the musician 
is differently formed from that of the wood-chopper, etc. 
So it appears to me natural that the work of our brains 
and the motions connected therewith should affect its 
form. Dropping water wears away the rock. But it is 
the mind which puts the substance of the brain into 
motion, — and the brain cannot conversely produce the 
mind. The brain, after it is developed, is a more or less 
well-suited organ for the mind, just as this or that ma- 
terial is suited for catching and holding the sun's rays." 

Froebel was very eager to know the result of the ex- 
amination of his head, which Dr. Schewe made in my 
presence, and assented to most of his conclusions. 

It seemed to me strange that Dr. Schewe ranked the 
organs of observation, which, indeed, assist the general 
powers, above the higher faculties of thought in Froebel. 
To my question, how genius made itself apparent in 
the organs, Dr. Schewe said that it could not be de- 
fined ; that many things must concur for it, but yet 
that single qualities must predominate strongly, as was 
the case with Froebel. He had seldom seen so strong 
powers of observation, especially the mathematical sense, 
or the sense of form and number ; and, likewise, the 
sense of activity {Thdtigkeit) and that of firmness and 
perseverance was large. 

Froebel said, in reference to genius, " That is the burn- 
ing-glass in the brain, which catches the rays of the 
sun immediately." 

Dr. Schewe expressed to us his sorrow on account of 



312 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

the unexpected decease of Froebel, and again asserted 
his willingness to contribute as far as lay in his power to 
the spread of Froebel's educational method, of the cor- 
rectness and great importance of which he was fully 
convinced. This promise he fulfilled by using every 
opportunity to call attention to the subject, and, later, by 
his participation as a co-worker in the periodical, " The 
Education of the Present," established by me in 1861, 
which contained, in its first two volumes, a number of 
articles on " Phrenology and Education," by Dr. Schewe. 

When, in the middle of October, I returned from a 
visit to the reigning duchess of Meiningen, in Meiningen, 
where, under the auspices of the duchess, the first kin- 
dergarten in that place had been opened, I called one 
afternoon in Marienthal, but found the house empty, in 
spite of the cold and rainy weather. I was told that 
Middendorff and his scholars were on the hill behind 
the house. From this hill Froebel had been accustomed, 
almost every evening, when the weather was fine, to see 
the sunset, that most beautiful natural spectacle, as it 
seemed to him, which he ahvays looked upon with true 
devotion. 

I went to the hill and saw from a distance the smoke 
rising from a fire that had been kindled. Approaching 
nearer, I saw Middendorff with the scholars standing in 
a circle around the clear-blazing fire. He had an open 
book in his hand ; the scholars were throwing dry chest- 
nuts into the fire, to make it crackle ; and all were sing- 
ing Korner's " Battle Song " with full voices. Then it 
occurred to me that it was the i8th of October, and that 
the day was being celebrated here. 

And this festival Vv'as in no way a pastime, which they 



REMINISCENCES OF I ROEBEL. 313 

were enjoying, but was celebrated by Middendorff with 
solemn earnestness, as it was also at Keilhau, annually, 
in order to awaken in the young souls the love of their 
native land. He thought girls ought to be educated 
into patriotism equally with the boys, if not to bear the 
sword later, at least for other necessary patriotic deeds in 
times of war. 

Middendorff now made a little address, in which he 
spoke of the great victory, with enthusiastic reminiscen- 
ces of his own war life, and showed that if the women 
wished to bring up brave sons for their native country, 
the feeling of love for it should not remain foreign to 
them, and they must also be fitted to kindle courage in 
their own souls, which in times of danger should awaken 
in each one the necessary desire for self-sacrifice and 
self-denial. 

We then sang several battle-songs and songs of vic- 
tory from a book that Middendorff had brought with 
him. In the evening Middendorff told us of some of 
the campaigns which he had made with Froebel and 
Langethal in Liitzow's corps. Among other things he 
told us how a maiden had served in this corps as 
Jager, had fought bravely, and had prepared good 
food, and how her sex had not been discovered until 
she was wounded. But he spoke especially of Froebel's 
coolness during the campaign and in battles. Once, 
when their Jager corps was lying in a ditch behind a 
hedge, and under the fire of the enemy, whose balls 
were passing over them, Froebel turned to Midden- 
dorff, who was lying behind him, and asked him whether 
he knew how many seconds faster the musket-balls 
moved than the balls from the flint locks. While he 



314 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

was in immediate danger of his life, Froebel had the 
coolness to solve this mathematical problem. 

On the marches, under the hottest July suns, when 
most of the men in the corps were trying to get rid of 
everything they could do without, to make their knap- 
sacks lighter, Froebel collected all kinds of stones, 
herbs, and mosses for his study of nature, and filled his 
knapsack with them, so that one could scarcely lift it, 
on account of its weight. At the bivouac-fire Froebel 
brought out his treasures, to serve as the subjects of con- 
versations on natural history. Still oftener he talked 
with his friends of his " idea," and how they must work 
together for it. Already in this time of youth the enthu- 
siasm for a better education of men arose among Froe- 
bel's friends. 

Middendorff was an example of the rarest devotion 
and faithfulness to the friend whose life-companion he 
had been through forty years, and to a humane idea, 
whose discoverer that friend was, and whose humble 
shield-bearer he remained after his friend's death, carry- 
ing on the work he had left behind, even to his last 
breath of life. What a contrast his life and work forms 
to that of so many of the present so-called advocates of 
the cause, who, led by merely personal motives, have no 
conception of the high priestly office that Middendorff 
filled so unassumingly, and with so much humility. 

On the next day Middendorff brought me again a 
little packet of letters, which contained words of sympa- 
thy and admiration and love, in remembrance of Froe- 
bel, from distant friends and scholars. Extracts from 
these letters, which we together selected as we read 
them, were contained in Middendorff's little pamphlet, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 315 

"Froebel's Departure from Life." Here are only a few 
aphoristic passages out of them, which all express the 
highest recognition of Froebel. 

" From the feeling of an indescribable sorrow arises, 
like a flowery island out of a stormy sea, the great, 
blessed conviction, that over this world of blooming and 
decay, over flying generations and sinking ages, there 
reigns an unattainable, a Divine One. A personality 
which, like Froebel's, is rooted in the soil of immortality, 
lives for all times, fairer, nobler, truer, after the finite 
form of existence has been stripped off, and the defects 
and limitations of the earthly form have been overcome. 
To our glorified friend too will the words of our national 
poet apply, that what life has only half given to the 
great, after ages will give wholly and undividedly. For 
the misunderstanding and the scorn with which he was 
rewarded here, for the pains amidst which he brought 
beauty into the world, for the homelessness which was 
his lot on earth, a double home has been given to him 
through death, — the higher world, to which he has re- 
turned, and a home in the fairest and best hearts of his 
people. His childlike countenance will beam in undis- 
turbed brightness through the coming ages, his image 
will be crowned with the pure hands of thankfulness, in 
gratitude for his giving himself as a sacrifice to his peo- 
ple and his spirit to the common welfare of all." 

" The way which he has gone is the way of nature. 
Death is transformation, the beginning of new life. Froe- 
bel himself called it ^ the enlargement of life.'' Froebel's 
death is the beginning of a new life of humanity ; the 
dawn which opened for him will be transformed into a 
day which, beginning in the mothers and children, will 



3l6 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

flow out through them over all the earth. Froebel will 
live in the kingdom of heaven upon earth, — in the kin- 
dergarten, the garden of God, the kingdom of peace 
and bliss, untroubled childhood." .... " He rests not ; 
he works and strives still among the many in whom he 
has awakened and fostered a striving like his own." 

"The more I think over his life, the more it seems 
to me finished, and that, as such, it has reached its com- 
pletion. Froebel, too, can say, ' It is finished.' His 
life-thought will live in manifold forms, and in various 
shapes." 

A scholar wrote : " How Froebel was loved, — more 
than any one I ever knew ! He reaped love because he 
sowed love. The nev\s of his death moved me as deeply 
as if my father had died ; and was not Froebel my father, 
— a second, a spiritual father, who awakened in me my 
life-idea, my true soul ? What educational science has 
lost in Froebel learned men will have told you. They 
know that with him a new era in it begins, — that he has 
earned for himself an undying name in the history of 
that science. But we know that his work cannot perish. 
It comes from too great a depth in the soul of man ; it 
answers too well to his needs." 

Another letter : " How I thank the dear God that 
he permitted me to live for six months near him ! 
Gladly would I give up every happiness that I have en- 
joyed, rather than the residence at Marienthal. Those 
hours will live eternally in me. I regret every moment 

that I did not spend with him when I could do so 

His spirit will lead me to work in harmony with his idea. 
Every thought of him is a reminder of it." 

All the writers of these letters have only gratitude 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 317 

and love for their departed and (in their hearts) ever- 
living teacher and friend. Middendorff said : " We 
will raise a living monument to him. Let each of us 
lay our hand to it, work in his place as we can ; then 
will the power of the whole world be unable to prevent 
the growth and blossoming of the new seed, and, even 
long after we are dead our thank-offering will shine in 
the world." 

When 1 went to Liebenstein the following year (1853), 
in May, the Marienthal institution had already been 
removed to Keilhau for several months. Letters from 
Middendorff and Madame Froebel spoke of a good 
beginning, and gave hope of a successful continuation of 
the training institution for kindergartners. 

Diesterweg and Middendorff came in the second half 
of May to the meeting of the General Convention of 
German Teachers. The latter had been especially in- 
vited, in order to represent the kindergarten question, 
which was placed on the order of exercises. 

It was undeniable that in this convention the chief 
interest was too much directed to the special questions 
about schools and instruction to admit of due considera- 
tion being given to the age preliminary to the school, 
and it w^ould be unreasonable to expect anything else 
from teachers in general. For one thing, there was at 
that time such abundant material presented for the re- 
form of school affairs, which was recognized as neces- 
sary, — a material which is even now far from being 
worked up, — and Froebel's educational doctrine and its 
connection with the school was so little known, even the 
importance of kindergartens was so little recognized, and 
they were so incompletely carried out, that it was con- 



3l8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

ceivable that the much-occupied school-directors should 
not pay much attention to the subject. Instruction lay 
near their hearts. They left it to the family to care 
for the first education, which could not be their affair. 
This was, in a word, the opinion of the great majority. 
Only a small number (especially in consequence of Dies- 
tervveg's, Richard Lange's, and afterwards Carl Schmidt's 
initiative for Froebel's cause) showed a lively interest in 
the cause. This was evident, not only in the Salzung 
Teachers' Convention, but also in those which followed 
later. So in Kothen, where Carl Schmidt spoke for the 
cause with so much zeal and enthusiasm. Here, and 
likewise in Gera, — at both which conventions I was 
present, — we could only attract a small house for our 
subject, which I tried to help along by some remarks, 
together with some practical demonstrations, in a small 
private anteroom after the public address. 

But however much interest was aroused among teach- 
ers from time to time, leisure and strength to devote to 
the necessary studies were always wanting for a thor- 
ough knowledge of Froebel's method, over and above 
the exacting school-work. 

This obstacle still continues to exist, in spite of the 
fact that the immediate connection of school education 
with family education, and the impossibility of being able 
to improve the one without the other, is becoming more 
evident every day. 

Surely there can be no other remedy than to follow 
the example of Austria, which has introduced Froebel's 
method as a required branch of instruction in the semi- 
naries for the preparation of teachers. As children 
ought to lose no more time, and should be provided 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 319 

before the school with the preliminaries for it and for 
life, so must the teachers be taught Froebel's educational 
method as the prerequisite for their calling, which con- 
sists in practising it. The individuals among teachers 
who have learned Froebel's method thoroughly have be- 
come thoroughly convinced, and faithful, devoted follow- 
ers and advocates of it. This oft-repeated experience 
encourages me to hope that the time will come when 
Froebel, the reformer of education, will find a place in 
the gospel {Evangelinni) of the teache^-s by the side of 
Pestalozzi, the reformer of instruction. 

Some members of the Salzung Convention made vari- 
ous objections to the contents of the report made by 
Dr. Schulze on the kindergarten, and to the views ex- 
pressed by Middendorff, which they thought too general 
and not sufficiently positive. Middendorff was much 
excited at this, and with great liveliness gave a detailed 
statement of the nature, the aim, and the success of the 
kindergarten, its connection with the school, and its in- 
fluence on the culture of the national character. The 
deep conviction and the real warmth of heart with which 
he spoke never failed, and did not fail now, to make a 
great impression ; but, nevertheless, the contents of his 
speech were only understood partially, and not in their 
whole depth. Most of the auditors were unprepared for 
Froebel's theories ; and Middendorff, like Froebel before 
him, was too little acquainted with the present drift of 
thought among teachers — with the watchwords and the 
prevailing efforts of the moment — to be able to strike 
the right tone, — to find an echo, apart from the somewhat 
digressive form of expression customary with him, which 
had grown upon him through his rural retirement and 
the influence of Froebel. 



320 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

In spite of much concurrence on the part of individu- 
als, the Convention, as a whole, did not bring the success 
hoped for, as far as the kindergarten cause was con- 
cerned ; and Middendorff could not regain his natural 
cheerfulness. We mutually expressed the conviction that 
years must pass before the school-directors would recog- 
nize Froebel's work in its whole significance. Diester- 
weg also said, " It does not go so fast as one would 
like." 

In July I met Middendorff and Madame Froebel again 
in Keilhau, where, during my stay in Blankenburg in 
Thuringia, I often visited them. In the small band of 
pupils were the ladies Thekla Naveau and Leonore 
Heerwart, who were afterwards active for the cause. 
AH the young ladies were inspired with the greatest 
zeal, and clung with devoted love to Middendorff and 
Madame Froebel, who, on their part, devoted their whole 
powers to do the unfinished work of Froebel. 

Here, on the scene of Froebel's first activity, one could 
reflect upon the life that once held sway here, and must 
concur with Froebel that it would not be easy to find a 
more lovely and home-like place than Keilhau in which 
to bring up youth to the duty of life, in undisturbed rural 
quiet. 

But now one saw, instead of Froebel's little farm house 
where he and his pupils had to struggle at first with the 
greatest privations, several stately buildings which en- 
closed a large courtyard, surrounded by the steep moun- 
tains and beautiful woods of the rather narrow valley. 
There were beautiful, spacious apartments and school- 
rooms, and a large hall in the main building. Exem- 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 32 1 

plary order and care for the bodily and mental needs of 
the pupils were evident. The watchful guidance, the 
sharp practical oversight, and the somewhat strict dis- 
cipline, but at the same time loving care, of the director, 
Barop, were everywhere apparent. 

Barop received me with great friendliness, and told me 
many interesting particulars of Keilhau and Froebel's 
earlier activity here. Also, the former variances which 
had arisen from Froebel's disregard of the material and 
practical conditions of life had disappeared, and had 
given place to a profound recognition of his idea, and 
the importance of its fulfilment. Barop's communica- 
tion made many things very clear to me which had not 
been entirely intelligible before, and led me to realize 
again how severely genius has to battle and to suffer be- 
fore it can fulfil its mission and gain its just appreciation. 
Barop's character of firm, incorruptible honesty, and of 
an energy so rare, inspired me with great respect. 

This co-operation of the united families of Midden- 
dorff, Barop, and Christian Froebel for one aim made a 
great impression upon the observer ; and as regards un- 
selfishness, self-sacrifice, and courage, might rarely find 
its equal. The activity of each individual bore the stamp 
of scrupulous sense of duty, and at the same time of the 
most entire absence of pretension. Each one was ready 
to give help in everything, even outside of the circle of 
work personally assigned him. The old Christian Froe- 
bel, our Froebel's eldest brother, I found in the wash- 
room occupied in mangling linen, his weak eyes prevent- 
ing him from taking part in many kinds of work. 

Heinrich Langethal, Froebel's war comrade, and his 
true co-worker in the foundation and the earlier direction 



322 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

of Keilhau, had not at that time returned to Keilhau, so 
that I was unable, to my great disappointment, to make 
his personal acquaintance. Later we came into relation 
with each other by correspondence. At the present time 
this blind old man, almost ninety years old, is occupied 
in teaching at Keilhau, having been carried back there 
by the never lost memory of the time when he with Froe- 
bel and Middendorff had striven and labored here for the 
new education amidst the greatest privations and con- 
flicts,* a new proof that it is striving, laboring, and cre- 
ating, and not the passing enjoyment of the moment, that 
sanctifies the places of men's abode to grateful remem- 
brance. Like the men of this circle, the women in it 
were unceasingly active, without looking to the right or 
to the left, living only for an unselfish, faithful fulfilment 
of duty. The wives of Barop and Middendorff, two 
sisters, and daughters of the brother of our Froebel, set 
the example of this. From the first moment, one felt at 
home in this circle, and at the sight of the simple and 
unassuming life of the sprightly, unfettered pupils who 
did not feel repressed here as in so many of our educa- 
tional institutions. And in this instruction also, as far as 
was possible, Froebel's principle of self-activity was ob- 
served, that is, of keeping the pupils as active as possible 
by independent thinking, while the teachers were, on the 
contrary, more passive. 

One forenoon a troop of young boys came from out- 
side, marching into the courtyard with botanical boxes, 
and with bunches of flowers and grasses in their hands. 
To my question where had they been, the answer was, 
" On a voyage of discovery ; " — so they named their ex- 

* See further in Hanschmann's " Fr. Froebel." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 323 

cursion in the neighborhood, which they usually began at 
sunrise, and on which they botanized and collected all 
sorts of natural objects, that were then explained and 
elucidated by Middendorff in the lesson in natural sci- 
ence. There were among these, with other stones, some 
slates with impressions of antediluvian animals, in which 
the region was rich. 

The day was fair ; we went into the garden ; the col- 
lected treasures were displayed, and then the instruc- 
tion began by answers to the very pertinent questions 
asked by the scholars. Then followed the connection 
with the subject of the previous lesson. 

In this way the instruction in all the branches, at least 
for the lower stages, was directed to giving greater self- 
activity to the scholars. As with the body, only that 
nourishment is of any use which hunger demands, and 
which can be digested without overloading the stomach, 
so with the mind, no more information should be given 
than it has strength to receive without strain and really to 
assimilate. How many of the children of our schools, 
especially of the higher ones, can do this .'' 

Froebel's principle that experience (empirics) must 
keep pace with knowledge in children and youth, is surely 
the only correct one, and the only means of bringing 
about the actual necessary school reform. 

Experiences in the domain of practical life can only 
be gained by a life of action, and it is indispensable that 
for tins purpose the school should give the necessary time 
to practical work and to experiments on the plane of 
actuality. To solve this problem without neglecting the 
necessary acquirement of knowledge is the most impor- 
tant task of the school in our time. 



324 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Even in Keilhau this was not attained for a long time. 
The beginnings, which were made there under the earUer 
direction of Froebel, for combining the elements of work, 
that is, of productive work with learning, were too one- 
sided to last. The relations of life into which the 
majority of the pupils were to enter, the examinations 
required for their obtaining situations, the thousand pre- 
judices which oppose all innovations, had always com- 
pelled the Keilhau institution to take into account the 
life of actuality, and had made it impossible to disre- 
gard the complaints of the parents of its pupils, who 
were unwilUng to have the proper, customary school- 
learning shortened and supplanted in any way by prac- 
tical work whose importance for the purely educational 
side of culture was incomprehensible to them. 

But although the garden-work^ for which each scholar 
had a piece of garden-land assigned to him, was kept up, 
and some 7uo7'kshops were used by the pupils out of school- 
hours, yet Froebel's plan and arrangement for the earlier 
direction of the educational institution could not be fully 
preserved. As Barop very truly said : " We are not so 
far advanced that the scholar and the state official should 
have time and skill for garden-work, or should possess 
manual dexterity and practise such occupations. So 
long as life does not use these things and cannot make 
them serviceable, their educational use will not be recog- 
nized. We can only advance very gradually on the way 
to reform mapped out by Froebel ; we must keep pace 
with the slowly advancing reform in social affairs in gen- 
eral, and with the overthrow of prescriptive prejudices. 
We can only educate for the immediate present. That 
is the reason why here in Keilhau we have been obliged 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 325 

to give up many things which can certainly be taken up 
again at some later time." 

" And it must not be forgotten," I added, " that the 
reform aimed at by Froebel is in its whole extent entirely 
impossible so long as children shall not go from the kin- 
dergarteji into the elementary school reformed and modi- 
fied according to his pri?iciples. Without the preparation 
for productive activity, — which is also a gymnastic of the 
mental powers, — gained in the former, it is surely impos- 
sible to combine practical work with the literary school 
to the extent that Froebel intended to do. But agricul- 
ture might be added to various bodily exercises, like gym- 
nastics, etc., for the sake of physical health. A counter- 
poise must be given throughout to the excess of mental 
exertion." 

" You see here," said Barop, as we were looking at the 
garden of his pupils, " that full opportunity for that is 
furnished to our boys." 

These little gardens were situated on the slope of the 
hill behind the family garden, and offered a variegated 
patchwork of plan and decoration according to the fancy 
of their young owners. There one saw stones piled upon 
each other to represent a druidical altar, meadows for 
clay cows and sheep, shrubs cut into fantastic forms, 
imitations of mountain chains and river valleys modelled 
in clay, canals and ponds with fishes and frogs and little 
wooden canoes, etc. 

Beyond this was a long avenue of cherry-trees which 
had been planted by the first pupils of the institution, as 
at that time the raising of fruit was especially attended to. 

On one of their playgrounds the pupils had built a 
complete mock Robinson Crusoe's establishment. Rob- 



326 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

inson's hut with all kinds of implements, his castle which 
used to be stormed in play-time, defended from within by 
a small band of boys, his canoe made out of a trunk of 
a tree, etc., were represented. 

Sometimes they asked permission to bivouac in this 
place on summer nights ; then a fire was built, they en- 
camped around it, and cooked coffee and potatoes. On 
the steep hill they exercised themselves in climbing, and 
with the sweat of their brows brought down, by the help 
of home-made machines, — coltstaffs, sliding rollers, etc., 
— heavy blocks of stone, wood, and other things for use 
in the gardens. 

Such play-work is well suited to strengthen the body, 
to give dexterity in many practical operations, and serve 
as a counterpoise to the abstract studies. To these are 
to be added the usual short pedestrian tours in Keilhau 
which, with the older scholars, became journeys, and in 
which, through suitable instruction from the teachers who 
accompanied them, much knowledge of all kinds is ac- 
quired, and they are made acquainted with actual life.* 

How happy youth were made by such excursions I 
observed personally, when two years earlier Middendorff 
and one of the Keilhau teachers came with a little band 
on a foot-tour through the Thuringian forest to Lieben- 
stein. The gay singing and frolicking troop of boys de- 
lighted every one who saw them. Quartered and enter- 
tained in the upper story of our kindergarten house in 
Liebenstein, I had an opportunity to observe their merry 
and yet not extravagant impulses. 

But much as is done in many directions to lighten the 
strain of school-time, and to make it less injurious to the 

* See school and youth gai-dens in my work, " Education by Work." 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 



327 



body, it is far from sufficient, and very much must be 
added in order completely to reach the desired end. 

The school-gardens instituted in Austria under the pro- 
tection of the government, and furthered with unceasing 
pains by Professor Erasmus Schwab, are worthy of all 
praise as the beginning of a more practical and natural 
education of youth ; and form, moreover, a continuation 
of the Froebelian kindergartens. 

Not only the education of boys needs such supple- 
menting by means of practical working exercises, that of 
girls needs it in other respects even more, that young girls 
of all conditions may not enter so unprepared upon real 
life after the school years. This may apply to marriage, 
or to some special calling. Besides the preparation for 
household duties and the needs of everyday life, the 
necessary preparation for the future educational calling 
is especially to be provided for ; and Froebel's kindergar- 
ten, with its plays and occupations, and his theoretical 
educational doctrine furnish the necessary means for this. 

As Middendorff, as usual, was accompanying me a part 
of the way back to Blankenburg, over the Steiger, — 
a mountain of considerable height lying between the 
two places, — the languor of his appearance frequently 
struck me. Evidently the double instruction in the train- 
ing-school wore upon him. Madame Froebel also thought 
he exerted himself too much. Sometimes he had severe 
headaches, from which he suffered more and more, and 
was prevented from giving the theoretical instruction to 
the female pupils. It gave me pleasure to take his place 
sometimes when this was the case. I had already had 
practice in it in the circle of young girls and ladies who 
had attended my lectures in Berlin. 



328 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

On such an occasion, Middendorff once said: "You 
must take my place in the instruction, Frau von Maren- 
holz, if I leave the world." 

That was the first time that the thought occurred to me 
that our cause might soon lose him. 

He expressed special pleasure when I gave him a little 
pamphlet, " The First Education of Mothers, according 
to Froebel's Method," which I had written and printed in 
the previous winter; and it was the first one written on 
the subject, with the exception of smaller essays and 
newspaper articles. 

" I am very much pleased that we have this now," he 
said, as he held it in his hand, " and I have found a 
thought in it whose expression has a special value in my 
eyes. It is this : 'that the experience of nature and the 
material world must always give additional confirmation 
to the knowledge and revelation of spiritual things.' For 
that is an undoubted truth which was fully understood by 
Froebel. In this way mankind must build the bridge 
between these two contrasts in their own nature, and our 
education will prepare minds in childhood 'to feel them- 
selves at one with everything in the great world of space,' 
as Froebel says in his ' Mother and Cosset Songs.' " 

" I had so many questions especially in reference to 
this to ask Froebel," I said, " which must now be unan- 
swered. As we were once speaking of the future life, he 
said, 'That is a mere phrase, and a theory which rests 
upon appearances. Just as we now know that the sun 
only apparently goes round our earth, and that the con- 
verse is true, so we shall know at some time that the 
present life {Diesseits) and the other life {Jetiseits) lie in 
the same universe ( Weltrauni)^ in which there is no real 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 329 

separation, and in which everywhere there exists the 
closest, most unbroken connection. Think of my words: 
Separation is only for union there. The sun sheds light 
and warmth on all that lives upon the earth, and not only 
upon the earth, but also upon the other planets that be- 
long to our system, and there too its beams awaken and 
preserve life. It is the centre of the great organism to 
which we belong.' " 

"Yes," answered Middendorff, "Froebel often spoke 
of this linking together i^Gliede?'img) which binds all that 
exists. He had a very peculiar love for the sun, and he 
unwillingly missed seeing it set, here at this place as well 
as on the hill behind the Marienthal house." 

It occurred to me, after Middendorff's death, how 
often during my last visits to Keilhau he recurred to the 
continuance of life after death. He probably felt the 
diminution of his strength, which undoubtedly suffered 
from over-exertion. 

On the evening of the above-mentioned conversation 
we had entered so deeply into it that I could scarcely 
accomplish my return over the mountain on the steep 
slope without danger. Since the shorter way over the 
Steiger was only passable on foot or on a donkey, I 
availed myself of the latter method and rode, accom- 
panied by a boy as driver. The moon set early on that 
evening, and it was necessary to make haste in order to 
arrive at Blankenburg before night. In spite of all the 
urging of the youth, his donkey would not go, and a 
closer examination resulted in the unpleasant discovery 
that the poor beast had lost two shoes, and every step 
on the stony ground was painful. Nothing remained to 
be done, under these circumstances, but to dismount and 



330 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

go on foot, and the driver led the animal by the bridle. 
Thus we arrived about the middle of the night at Elan- 
kenburg, whose scattered lights were our guides in the 
darkness, in connection with the instinct of the donkey, 
who always objected when we were about to take a wrong 
direction. 

In the little city of Blankenburg, w-here Froebel had 
founded his first kindergarten, and as often as it had 
perished for want of support had founded it anew, I 
found the interest somewhat cold, although such an in- 
stitution existed there. Froebel's and Middendorff's 
names, however, excited a lively interest in most of the 
people, and they usually accompanied the mention of 
them with the expression, " A dear man, Herr Froebel ! 
How zealously and painfully he worked here ! " And they 
said of Middendorff, " When Herr Middendorff plays 
with the children, it is a pleasure to look at them," etc. 
There seemed to be no trace of a deep understanding of 
the subject among the cultivated people, so far as I had 
an opportunity of investigating. So it always is with 
genius and with those who scatter blessings. They are 
not understood, and must begin their work without help 
and without recognition, and be contented if they escape 
scorn and mockery, or even persecution. 

The last subject which I talked of with Middendorff 
in Keilhau was the foundation of educational unions, 
and the spread of kindergartens in foreign countries. 
There were great difficulties still in the way of both of 
these objects, but I promised to do what I could, and, as 
soon as my circumstances would permit, to make an at- 
tempt to introduce kindergartens into foreign countries. 
This plan was carried out in the fall of the next year, 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 33 1 

through a stay in London, of which I have given an 
account, together with that of attempts in other coun- 
tries, in my " Education by Work." 

In the end of November of this year I received, in Ber- 
lin, the entirely unexpected news of Middendorff's death 
on the 26th of that month! A brain stroke — caused, 
the physician thought, by an abscess in the head — had, 
without any previous sickness, put an end to his life. 
He carried on until the last moment the work he had 
undertaken for Froebel's cause, without sparing his body, 
in addition to his occupation of teaching in the Keilhau 
institution. He did all that this duty he had undertaken 
required with so much joyfulness and pleasure, that no 
one perceived the strain which it cost him physically. 

His end, like Froebel's, was a happy one, but without 
his being conscious of it, while Froebel met death with 
full knowledge and with calmness. Like him, Midden- 
dorff enjoyed, a little while before, a natural spectacle. 
The day before his death the first snow fell, and he ex- 
pressed again and again his pleasure at watching the 
whirling flakes. 

But the kindergarten training-institution was now with- 
out a head. In Keilhau there was no one who could 
undertake its direction. Madame Froebel wrote with 
great sorrow of being obliged again to give up the plan 
made with labor and pains. She had lost in Middendorff 
a firm support and a true friend and protector, and saw 
that she could not remain in Keilhau without him. She 
therefore accepted the invitation of school-director Mar- 
quard, of Dresden, to carry on with him and his wife the 
training of kindergartners in a school institution con- 



S3^ REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

nected with a kindergarten. But this arrangement was 
not a lasting one. In the following year Madame Froe- 
bel went to Hamburg to continue her activity for the 
cause there permanently in connection with the Union. 

As it is usually the case that only after the death of 
those who have brought anything important into the 
world, their efforts attain great success, so it is with the 
kindergartens, which have continued to spread since 
Froebel's death ; a result, however, which has not been 
reached without great toil and struggle. The beginning 
of my activity also for the cause, now twenty-seven years 
ago, was connected with many difficulties, and immediate 
results were often transitory. Within the last twelve 
years kindergartens have been more and more recognized, 
and will now undoubtedly be accepted in all civilized 
countries. 

At the same time the complete carrying out of Froe- 
bel's educational idea is far from being assured. Until 
the continuation of the kindergarten into and by the side 
of the school (school and youth gardens) shall have been 
generally accepted, until the preliminary steps to the 
kindergarten itself have been realized in the family cir- 
cle through mothers and governesses educated according 
to Froebel's method, and especially until all this is done 
in a really methodical way, instead of in a wooden way 
and mechanically, the educational reform prepared for 
by Froebel's method cannot reach its full completion. 

One may say that Froebel has found the point of Ar- 
chimedes for the new education, the new beginning which 
promises a new result. His idea could be understood 
only imperfectly by his contemporaries, and by only a 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. ^^^ 

few, because this idea belongs to the new theory of the 
world which time is preparing, and can only show its 
whole fruitfulness when this theory, cleared of error and 
misconception, shall have become completely naturalized 
among the cultivated. 

The Unions, which in these days undertake all im- 
provements in society, should especially undertake the 
advancement of this cause, and the chief share in its 
practical carrying out falls to women. 

The " General Educational Union " has been formed 
through my exertions as a point of departure for these 
efforts ; it can already show a favorable beginning, and 
desires aid from all those who recognize an improved 
education of man as one of the first requisites for im- 
proved conditions in human society. 



APPENDIX 



SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF FRIED- 
RICH FROEBEL. 

By EMILY SHIRREFF. 

Read at the Monthly Meeting of the London Froehel Society, 
June, 1876. 

TITHENEVER we have learned to take interest in a man's 
^^ opinions, or his public action and influence, we natu- 
rally desire to know more about his life, — to see what cir- 
cumstances went to form his character, what peculiar impulses 
or purposes shaped his destiny ; and thus we may conclude 
that members of a Froebel Society, persons associated to aid 
in carrying into effect the views of this man Froebel on a 
subject of the highest importance, must be interested in 
tracing out the history of his life. That history is so 
closely connected with his opinions, that a fervent disciple 
of his, Alexander Hanschmann, felt he could not so well 
analyze his theory in any other 'way as by analyzing his 
life, — looking back to all the circumstances which helped 
to make him what he was, and step by step prompted or 
facilitated the growth and gradual unfolding of his educa- 
tional theory. 

Friedrich Froebel was born in 1782 in the village of 
Oberweisbach in Thuringia. His father, the minister of 
the parish, was a man gifted with those qualities which win 
the love and respect of children, even when, as in the case 



336 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

of our hero, he had experienced from him scant justice and 
less tenderness. Friedrich lost his mother before he was 
a year old, but although he had never known her influence, 
he believed himself to have inherited from her his imagina- 
tive and artistic spirit. His father married again, and the 
second wife proved a real step-mother to the poor child 
who was thrown so peculiarly on her care. Under this 
hard woman's rule little Friedrich was neglected, and often 
unkindly treated, until, when he was ten years old, his 
mother's brother took compassion on him, and obtained 
leave to take him under his own care. This uncle, who 
occupied a post of some dignity in the Church at Stadt- 
Ilm, was a widower, who had lost his only son, and was 
glad to find an object of affection in his sister's child. 
Under his roof, amid plenty and kindness, Friedrich throve 
and prospered for five happy years ; went to the high school 
in the town, and enjoyed for the first time the healthy 
delight of companionship with others of his own age. In 
this new life his whole nature expanded ; he remained deli- 
cate and was somewhat dreamy, but he looked back to this 
period in after years as to one of great enjoyment. He 
showed no great aptitude at school except for arithmetic ; 
but he began to be — what he never ceased being while he 
lived — an observer of nature; and in his great delight in 
watching plants and animals, as well as in his appreciation 
of companionship, we find the source of two of his strong 
opinions respecting the education of children. It is to his 
own retrospective account of his early life, given in later 
years to his brother Christopher, and on another occasion 
to a friend, that we owe these particulars, and are able to 
trace how early his mind received the impression which 
>influenced him so strongly, of the analogy of the human 
;t)eing to the other organisms existing in the world, and the 
consequent belief that he should grow and develop har- 
moniously and completely as they do. 

[We are here tempted to interpolate some of these par- 



APPENDIX. 337 

ticulars of his childish experience which Mrs. Shirreff has 
omitted. 

Before he was four years old (when his father was married 
again), he lived in a house which was so built that it was 
under the shadow of a church, and no sunbeam could enter 
it, and was kept indoors by the single housemaid who was 
too busy to see to him otherwise. His great amusement at 
one time was to watch some workmen from a window, as 
they were repairing the church, and his impulse was to use 
what pieces of furniture or other objects he could move to 
imitate them in their building, but he was baffled by their 
unsuitableness. 

It was the recollection of this ungratified building instinct 
which suggested to him in later years that children ought to 
be provided with materials for building among their playthings. 
To this recollection was probably added the observation 
which every one must make who sees much of children, that 
they all have the building instinct, and that "to make a 
house " is a universal form of unguided play, if it is only 
with chairs and tables or whatever is at hand. 

Later in life the child was often taken by his father when 
the latter went the rounds of his parochial visiting among 
the peasants, in order to relieve the step-mother of the care 
of him. When one of his brothers, coming home in a vaca- 
tion, and much compassionating the neglected child, won his 
confidence by fondling him, little Friedrich asked him why it 
was that God did not make all the people men, or all women, 
so that there should be no quarrelling. To divert his young 
mind from the problem of human discord, his brother under- 
took to amuse him by showing him the processes of vegeta- 
tion, — the compensating nature of imperfections in male and 
female flowers, and how, through the principle of growth, 
harmonies of beauty and use were born out of the connec- 
tion of opposites. Friedrich says, in adverting to this, that 
it was the beginning of all satisfactory thought, — indeed, it 
was ecstasy ; but his mind still secretly revolved the ques- 



;^^8 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

tion respecting the discords of humanity, and the first solu- 
tion of that problem he gained when he was put to school by 
his uncle Hoffman after he was ten years old. The first day 
of the school the master gave a familiar, practical sermon 
upon the text, " Seek first the kingdom of heaven and its 
righteousness, and all things shall be added to you." This 
was a flash of light to him, and from that time he never lost 
the clew of the law that was to bring to mankind the happi- 
ness of harmony, symbolized by the harmonies and beauty 
of plants. The world of vegetation was the instructor he 
recognized as superior to all others. This department of 
nature was his normal school ; it dominates his phraseology 
through life. 

In one of his letters he mentions that in the year when 
Louis XVI. was beheaded there was a rumor among the 
peasants of Thuringia that the world was coming to an end. 
He says he could not share the panic, he did not believe it, 
for it was plain to him that the will of God had not yet been 
brought about. What a reflection for a child of eleven years! 
It foreshadowed the mind that seemed never to forget the 
past nor the future in its sensibility to the present, but com- 
prehended eternity so far as to feel that the very present God 
was at once the Ancient of Days and the Redeemer of the 
future. 

This was the child-mind of the man who in his maturity 
refused to take charge of the education of the Duke of Mei- 
ningen's son when it was proffered to him with its emolu- 
ments, because, as he explained to the Duke, " it was 
impossible to give a sound intellectual education to a child 
who had not a true moral development, and that it was im- 
possible for a child to receive that who was separated from 
equals and led to imagine himself as having a superior 
nature." 

This self-abnegating action of Froebel, in the midst of his 
poverty, induced the Duke to send his son to a public gym- 
nasium, as Froebel advised. 



APPENDIX. 339 

The world will never have Froebel's true kindergarten 
until the teachers of little children are as disinterested and 
as reverent of their office as was its founder.] 

Froebel in many ways may be called self-educated, for his 
school-teaching was most superficial ; and his aims, and the 
view he took of what knowledge was essential for attaining 
them, were entirely original. Unconscious as yet of his 
inborn power as an educator, he exercised it on himself, and 
felt continually the failure of all instruction he received by 
its want of completeness, its absence of harmony with the 
outward workings of nature, its inferiority to the ideal he 
had formed. He early felt that there was a world for him 
to take possession of, to grow and develop in ; and a little 
bit of grammar, a little mechanical arithmetic and geography 
and geometry, which made up the sum total of his school 
instruction, seemed all disjointed and purposeless. The 
geography especially, towards which his outdoor studies 
gave him a strong bent, seemed, as he expressed it, " in the 
air," without root or meaning. 

Another leading feature of his mind showed itself early ; 
this was a strong religious feeling, and a sensitive conscious- 
ness with regard to duty. His mind worked much upon 
these questions towards the time of his confirmation, which 
took place at fifteen, and at the hands of his uncle. After 
this ceremony, which very commonly closes school life in 
Germany, it became necessary to decide whether he should 
be removed, as he ardently desired, to some place of higher 
instruction, or commence practical life in some shape not 
requiring this additional expense. Not only had his elder 
brothers been sent to the university, but the youngest also, 
the second wife's son, was destined to share the same privi- 
lege ; it was therefore peculiarly hard upon Friedrich that 
his step-mother was allowed to prevail, and to fix his future 
course at a lower level. She considered study too expensive 
a privilege for a poor man's sons, and had decided that the 
family income should not further be lessened by such indul- 



340 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 



gence. It was proposed to put Friedrich into some kind of 
office where his work would have been among accounts and 
inferior law business ; and an opening for this offered itself, 
but was relinquished by his fatlier as a concession to the 
boy's own feelings. He shrank with horror from this me- 
chanical town life, and, impelled by his intense love of nature, 
entreated to be allowed to become a farmer; thinking that, 
living on and by the land, he would be in daily communion 
with all that appealed so strongly to his loving spirit. He 
was accordingly apprenticed for three years, at some distance 
from home, to a forster, or manager of forest land, who, he 
soon found, neglected him and all the practical part of his 
work, and taught his pupil nothing. But he had books, 
works on natural history and mathematics, and these the boy 
studied assiduously. His ideal of a farmer's vocation com- 
prised every kind of knowledge that country life could re- 
quire, — natural science, geometry to be applied in surveying, 
and many other subjects which seemed necessary to make 
that harmonious whole complete in itself and in its relations 
with surrounding things, which was essential even then to 
his idea of life in any position. He felt, though dimly per- 
haps, even at that early period, that this or that kind of 
knowledge should never be merely an instrument requisite 
for a certain use, but the rounding off of the human being's 
own development, the self-culture for a purpose higher than 
any worldly purpose, for which he was responsible to God 
and his conscience. This is one of the points that illustrate 
how important it is in regard to a thinker like Froebel to 
know his life; for these actual self-questionings and struggles 
of his own early youth give the key to what was most charac- 
teristic in his later theories. 

When his three years' apprenticeship ended, it became 
evident to all that Froebel had acquired nothing of what he 
had been sent to learn ; and his master, to save his own repu- 
tation, wrote a shameful report of him to his father, which 
was exultingly received by his step -mother, who now at last 



APPENDIX. 341 

thought he would remain at home, her useful drudge and vic- 
tim. Fortunately, he had been wise enough to secure for 
himself the forster'^s testimonial at the close of his appren- 
ticeship, and this set him right with his father, though it did 
little to lessen his penance under Frau Froebel's government 
of home affairs. All entreaties that he might be allowed to 
continue his studies were set aside, and a casual circumstance 
only led him to visit one of his brothers at Jena ; and once 
there, and assisted by him, arrangements were soon made 
with the trustee of some small property of his mother's that 
enabled him to attend the university lectures for two terms. 
But his very small resources were soon exhausted ; with a 
boy's thoughtlessness, he got into debt, was thrown into the 
university prison, and only by relinquishing all future claim 
to tlie paternal inheritance could he obtain from his father the 
sum necessary to free himself The amount of his debts ap- 
pears to have been very small ; the largest item was thirty 
thalers to the landlord of an eating-house, and some of his 
lecture fees had been left unpaid. Nine weeks' imprisonment 
seems a hard measure of punishment ; but he did not waste 
them. Having felt his deficiencies in Latin, he worked hard 
at it during this period, besides reading whatever books he 
could get access to. He was by this time nineteen, and still 
adhered to his wish to become a farmer, and, after an unpleas- 
ant interval at home, was sent to a man who seems to have 
been the agent for certain large estates ; and here he entered 
into all the practical work of his calling, and, as might have 
been expected from a mind so contemplative, found practical 
life, with all its outward activity, far from satisfying. Before, 
however, he had formed any new plans, he was called home 
to assist his father, who had fallen into feeble health ; and 
thus he had the consolation of more intimate communion 
with one whose intense energy and unfailing steadfastness 
when he had grasped a truth commanded his deepest rever- 
ence. After his death, the long-misunderstood son could say, 
" May his now enlightened spirit look down upon me with 



342 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

calm blessing ; may he now be satisfied with the son who 
loved him so truly." 

Froebel was now, at the age of twenty, entirely independent 
of control. He left Oberweisbach, and obtained employment 
successively in the forest department at Bamberg and on pri- 
vate estates as land surveyor and farmer ; still devoting his 
spare hours to natural history and other studies, reading 
Schlegel, and Novalis, and ever earnest in self-culture in every 
direction. At this time, also^ he made acquaintance with a 
physician and others who seemed to have perceived something 
of his rare nature, and afforded him the opportunity of higher 
companionship than he had yet enjoyed. They also provided 
him with introductions at Frankfort, where he was desirous 
of studying architecture, some knowledge of which he felt to 
be necessary to perfect fitness for a land agent's business, in 
which much building was occasionally required. 

This journey to Frankfort was the turning-point of his life. 
He there, after a time, made acquaintance with Gruner, the 
director of the Normal School ; and this man, with evident 
jDenetration of character, proposed to him suddenly to give up 
his study of architecture and become a teacher, — promising 
him a post as assistant at once. 

How he might have decided had he been altogether free we 
cannot tell ; but what seemed at the moment a serious 
misfortune, namely, the loss of all the certificates he had 
received from different employers, coincided fortunately with 
this new turn given to his thoughts : he decided to accept 
Gruner's proposal, and speedily recognized his true vocation. 
When he first found himself before a class of from thirty to 
forty boys, he felt, as he afterwards expressed it, well and 
happy, — as if restored to his proper element, as a bird to the 
air, and a fish to the water. In speaking of this first experi- 
ence in a letter to his brother dated 1805, he says that "it 
was strange that he had felt at first as if he had long been a 
teacher, and born to that special employment .... as if he 
had never lived in any other relation " ; and yet he adds, " I 



APPENDIX. 343 

had never thought to enter a public schocl as teacher." In 
this position he reahzed the possibility of working for that 
ideal which had gradually become the conscious purpose of 
his life, — the ennobling of humanity. It had come over him 
painfully before this, that neither through architecture, nor any 
other labor belonging to his chosen path in life, was he likely 
to effect anything in that direction ; but education had this 
for its direct purpose, and won him heart and soul to its labo- 
rious duties. 

He took advantage of the first holiday time to visit Pesta- 
lozzi in Switzerland. This great educator, the forerunner 
of Froebel in some of his principles and methods, was then 
at the height of his fame. After many vicissitudes he had 
settled at Yverdon, on the shore of the Lake of Neuchatel, 
in the building appropriated to his use by the Government 
of the Canton. Here Froebel first saw the practical working 
of views that had more or less taken possession spontane- 
ously of his own mind ; and he was full of reverent admira- 
tion for the man who had struggled against so many difficul- 
ties, supported by the conviction that a sounder system of 
education, more true to human nature, oflfered the surest hope 
for the regeneration of society. 

On Froebel's return to Frankfort, his marked success as a 
teacher fully justified Gruner's choice. His class became the 
model class of the model school, and he had full opportunity 
to let teachers and parents see the advantage of his method 
of instruction by drawing out the pupils' own faculties. The 
first examination that took place marked his position ; but he 
himself dwelt rather upon the deficiencies of his own knowl- 
edge, of which his work as a teacher made him more and 
more painfully conscious. His ideal was a high one, and he 
felt his need of more study, and especially of going more 
deeply into methods of instruction and education ; and after 
two years spent in the Normal School, he obtained from 
Gruner his release from the engagement he had made to w^ork 
three years with him, and devoted his time to private study. 



34-4 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

Soon after tins he was offered the charge of three boys, the 
sons of Herr von Holzhausen, whose mother had learned 
during two years' intercourse to know and appreciate him, 
and now entreated him to save her sons, who had suffered so 
severely from bad management that she was utterly miserable 
about them. The attachment this able and noble-hearted 
woman felt for him was the first of those female friendships 
which in later years exercised so much influence over and 
added so much charm to his life. In her house he enjoyed 
social intercourse, which helped to draw out his nature ; and 
her earnest request that he Would undertake the care of her 
sons at once proved her confidence and confirmed him in his 
resolve to give himself wholly to this the noble work of edu- 
cation. His view that the whole nature of each child must be 
drawn out to form the perfect man, and that only by such ed- 
ucation (which alone deserved the name) could the race be im- 
proved, was already clear in his mind. His view of the knowl- 
edge required by the educator was as large as his ideal purpose 
was high. He himself ardently wished to return to study at 
a university. What he felt he needed, as a teacher, besides 
languages and philosophy, was a study of anthropology, phy- 
siology, ethics, theoretical pedagogy, history, and geography ; 
but this wish for the wider culture was necessarily set aside 
for the time, in great measure because his scanty means were 
again exhausted, and he became tutor in the Holzhausen 
family in 1807. 

Without being acquainted at that time with the works of 
Rousseau, he so far held the same views that he isolated his 
pupils from the world. He obtained leave to inhabit with 
them a country place a short distance from Frankfort ; and 
probably his task of uprooting the evil caused by former mis- 
management was thereby facilitated. He had all the influence 
of a free healthy nature to assist him, and no dangerous coun- 
teraction to dread from association ; but after a while he felt 
such a system was cramped and one-sided. He was con- 
scious also of his own deficient knowledge in many branches, 



APPENDIX. 345 

and with their parents' consent, he carried off his pupils to 
Yverdon, and worked with them in Pestalozzi's school for 
three years. 

This long familiarity with the master's method, and with 
its practical results, doubtless helped to ripen his own educa- 
tional views. Points of agreement and points of difference 
were brought out into strong relief; and when in 1810 he 
determined to withdraw, it was with undiminished respect for 
Pestalozzi, but with a strong feeling that his system, even if 
it worked with the completeness which it never could attain 
under that original but most erratic genius, could never be a 
complete education, could never draw out and blend harmoni- 
ously the whole faculties of the child. An immense improve- 
ment on previous methods, it still did not deserve to stand as 
the new education destined to regenerate the race. He re- 
turned to Frankfort with his pupils ; and feeling more than ever 
his own deficiency both in classical and scientific knowledge, 
he, in the following year, having saved a little money, gave up 
his work as a teacher for a time, to become a learner again at 
the University of Gottingen, to which he repaired in July, 181 1. 

In such a rapid sketch as I am able to give here, it is im- 
possible to enter into the subject of his studies ; and yet their 
nature and extent bear witness to the earnestness of his 
preparation for what he felt was the superior work of his life, 
and show likewise how in proportion as he pondered the 
truly sublime object he had set before himself, the more he 
felt the need of all the power that a thorough grasp of knowl- 
edge could give him. He believed himself led by Heaven to 
be an educator, and was inspired with an earnest hope that 
through the reform in the whole scope of education which he 
felt to be so necessary, he might be the chosen instrument to 
work out the regeneration of the nation ; but he had no weak 
enthusiast's faith in the all-sufficiency of such a call to fit him 
for the task. It was ever remarkable in him that, side by side 
with the mystic enthusiasm of the most exalted piety, he had 
the sober practical sense of the man, formed by experience 



346 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

and scientific study ; and thus, although the cool rationalist 
would feel no sympathy with one part of his nature, and that 
the part which perhaps exercised the most influence on those 
who loved him, he could look only with respect on the pro- 
found conviction which gave the dignity and earnestness of 
a lofty aim to the hard labor of a life spent in acquiring and 
imparting knowledge. To him the universe was the living 
expression of God's thought ; the study of nature's laws, 
therefore, was the study of God's will ; and the complete 
harmony between the developed human faculties and external 
nature was the great purpose of human existence, at once the 
work of education and the life of religion. It is on account 
of these views, which interpenetrated all he said and did and 
purposed, that the study of Froebel's life is so important. If 
we studied his theories alone, we might fail to understand, or 
perhaps be half offended by the tone that pervades them ; 
but when we follow the man through his labors and his strug- 
gles, when we see him building up his own lile as he would 
have built up the national life, seeking knowledge for himself 
as he sought to give it to others, because it was needed to 
satisfy some thirst of the soul, to round off some incomplete- 
ness in that perfecting of the whole being, which was the 
reasonable offering of man to his Creator, — then we under- 
stand him, and each portion of his system becomes clear to 
us, not as a piece of mechanism that might be altered here or 
improved there, but as a living organism that can work and 
grow only when complete in all its parts. 

The study of mineralogy had a special attraction for him, 
and he was very desirous to pursue it under Weiss at Berlin, 
and likewise to join the class of jurisprudence under Savigny. 
He hoped also to find there an opening for increasing his own 
scanty means, which could no longer suffice for his student's 
life at Gottingen. Accordingly, in the summer of 18 12, he 
removed to Berlin, and there, as he had hoped, found employ- 
ment in a school of the same kind as the learned institute at 
Frankfort which had been founded by Plamann, an earnest 



APPENDIX. 347 

admirer of Pestalozzi, whose principles he had determined to 
extend from the middle-class schools to the higher. Thus 
was Froebel occupied when the French disasters in Russia 
struck the hour of deliverance for Germany, and Prussia, so 
heavily oppressed, and so steadily pursuing the means of 
revenge, called upon every man to take up arms against the 
oppressor. The king's proclamation, the personal call " To 
my people," was responded to with an enthusiasm which will 
ever mark this as one of the grandest moments in German 
history. Then, as many have said, did the consciousness of 
the existence of a German nation first arise. Froebel, who, 
like other men of peaceful pursuits, — students, poets, and 
artists, — was stirred by this call to a new duty, was also 
thrilled for the first time by this feeling of patriotism, colored 
in his mind, as all things were, with the sense of his duty as 
an educator. 

"I had," he said, '"'a home, a land of my birth, but no 
fatherland. My own home made no call upon me. I was no 
Prussian, and so it happened that in my retired life the call 
to arms stirred me little. But something else there was which 
stirred me, if not with enthusiasm, yet with most steadfast 
determination, to take my place among German soldiers, and 
this was the pure feeling, the consciousness of being a Ger- 
man, which I honored as something noble and sacred in my 
own mind, and desired that it might be unfettered and able to 
make itself everywhere felt. Besides this feeling, I was also 
moved by the earnestness with which I embraced my mission 
as an educator. 

" I could, indeed, truly say that I had no fatherland ; yet I 
could not but feel that every lad, every child who later should 
be educated by me, would have a fatherland, and one that 
required to be defended nov/ when those children could not 
defend it. It was hardly possible for me to conceive how 
any young man capable of bearing arms could think of be- 
coming an educator of children whose country he would not 
defend with his blood or his hfe. It was impossible for me 



348 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

to imagine how a young man who should not be ashamed 
then to hang back like a coward, could later, without shame, 
and without incurring the scorn and derision of his pupils, 
stir them to any great thing, to any action requiring effort or 
self-sacrifice. This was the second consideration that weighed 
in my decision. Thirdly, the call to arms seemed a token of 
universal need of the men, of the country, and the times in 
which I lived, and I felt that it was unworthy and unmanly 
not to struggle for such a universal necessity, not to bear 
one's own share of peril in the thrusting back of a general 
peril. Before all these considerations, then, every opposing 
view gave way, even that which belonged to the fact of the 
unfitness of my weak constitution for the trials of such a life." 

Thus in April, 1813, Froebel joined the other Berlin stu- 
dents, led by Jahn, and entered the famous volunteer corps 
of Lutzow's " Black Riflemen," and served with them to the 
end of the war. 

With his brief career as a soldier we have no concern. 
The great events of that war are known to all ; its ultimate 
results have been worked out before our own eyes. But 
while Froebel was following the fortunes of the field, he was 
forming intimacies which were to endure through all the 
peaceful labor of his after life. 

Two Berlin students, much younger than himself, William 
Middendorff and Henry Langethal, became his comrades 
and were irresistibly attracted by his character and conversa- 
tion, and here by the camp-fires of the wild volunteer corps 
was knit a friendship that bound these three men together for 
weal or woe in the pursuance of the highest purpose of the 
practical philosopher. In the younger men this feeling was 
mixed with a reverence which made them ever ready to follow 
where he led. It became that high and noble thing loyalty ; 
which, even in its lowest phases, excites the admiration due to 
generous devotion, but which, given to the leader who imper- 
sonates a lofty ideal of action, stands foremost among the 
noblest things on earth. The whole power of a man's nature 



APPENDIX. 349 

then goes out in love and service to one in whom he recog- 
nizes his guide to whatever is highest and best in human life. 
Trial and difficulty do but make the devotion more ardent ; 
and in hours of failure, perhaps of such weakness or error 
as are inseparable from all human enterprise, it seems rea- 
sonable even to abdicate for a time the independent exercise 
of reason, and still to follow without faltering the leader's 
banner. All the moral and intellectual worth of these two 
men, and of Middendorff in particular, was thus given to the 
service of the friend they revered as well as loved ; and the 
affection born then, amid the free intercourse of an adven- 
turous life, amid youthful excitement and daily peril, had but 
grown stronger and more tender when, after nearly forty years 
of struggle and labor, and often weary disappointment, Mid- 
dendorff pronounced his touching oration over FroebePs 
grave, and turned from it to continue his work. 

The three friends were differently placed at that period, 
and seemed destined to different careers ; yet after a time 
Froebel's enthusiasm for education drew the others to his 
side. But this is anticipating. After the close of the war, 
Froebel claimed the promise made to him of an appointment 
in the mineralogical museum at Berlin, and resumed his stud- 
ies there, hut always with the object of completing his own 
fitness for an educator, and when offered a valuable post as 
mineralogist at Stockholm, he declined it as foreign to his 
educational purpose. This purpose was suddenly forced to 
take a practical form by the death of his brother Christopher, 
pastor of Griesheim, who was one of the many victims of a 
malignant typhoid fever that spread widely over Germany 
after the battle of Leipzig. He left a widow and children ill 
provided for ; and Friedrich Froebel felt at once that this was 
the occasion Heaven sent to him to put his system of educa- 
tion into action by undertaking the charge of his nephews. 
The widow gladly consented, and to her sons were subse- 
quently joined those of the other brother, Christian Froebel, 
and other lads from the neighborhood. Thus in a peasant's 



350 



REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 



house in the village of Griesheim, and later in the neighbor- 
ing one of Keilhau, was opened the first school upon that 
new method which its founder hoped would become the vivi- 
fying influence to regenerate the German nation, and which 
we still trust may transform the education of the future. It 
was the dream of years that Froebel was beginning to realize. 
In 1807 he had in a letter to his brother Christopher laid 
down his cherished plan of a school: " Not to be announced 
with trumpet tongue to the world, but to win for itself in a 
small circle, perhaps only among the parents whose children 
should be intrusted to his care, the name of a happy family 
institution ; . . . . and then at last he would live in the coun- 
try the self-ennobling life which had been his earliest, bright- 
est, dearest wish." 

It would lead us beyond our limits to attempt to examine 
how far his system may justly bear the name of the " New 
Education," which has been given to it by some German 
writers : I will only mention two points, that characterize it 
so essentially as almost alone to warrant its claim to the title. 
These are, the recognition of practical activity as an integral 
part of education, and the parallel of the mental growth of 
the human being with the development of all other organisms 
in nature. With regard to the first, Pestalozzi had attached 
much value to manual exercise and handicraft of various 
kinds, but rather as parts of physical training and technical 
preparation for life, especially among the lower classes ; but with 
Froebel all outward training had an inward correlative ; some 
mental faculty was always to be consciously brought into play, 
to be strengthened and directed aright, while the limbs were 
gaining vigor or dexterity. He did not value manual work for 
the sake merely of making a better workman, but for the sake 
of making a more complete human being. " His teaching 
rested," says Hanschmann, "on this fundamental principle, 
that the starting-point of all that we see, know, or are con- 
scious of, is action, and therefore that education or human de- 
velopment must begin in action. Through what a man works 



APPENDIX. 351 

out, is his inward being developed. Life, action, and Icnowl- 
edire were to him the three notes of one harmonious chord. 
Book study is ever in his system postponed to the strength- 
ening and disciphne of the mental and physical powers 
through observation and active work. The young creature 
must be at home in its surroundings, — learn to live, seek to 
understand outer and visible things, and to exercise its own 
creative faculty, before it is introduced to the inner world of 
thought, to symbols and abstractions, and made to gather up 
the fruit of other men's labor and experience. With regard 
to the second point, — the unfolding of the human powers 
according to inner, or, as we may call them, organic laws, — 
it lay at the core of his whole theory of education. He had 
watched development and gradual formation by the action of 
inward laws through all the realms of nature, — plants, ani- 
mals, and, lastly, in the forms of crystals, which seized pow- 
erfully on his imagination ; and that the human creature was 
destined by the law of its being to develop in like manner 
possessed his mind as a revelation of Divine truth. Hence 
all systems of education that aimed at outward accretion only 
or mostly, that trusted to pouring in instruction on the undis- 
ciplined mind, were to him false, and the only real system was 
that which assisted natural growth, which cultivated and 
strengthened the opening faculties, placing mental food within 
reach, and aiding the effort of the young creature to grasp it. 
The true educator's care was to study the nascent powers, 
and so to frame the surroundings that the active use of each 
and all in harmonious work should become a necessity and a 
pleasure. 

All who have any acquaintance with ordinary school meth- 
ods will appreciate from these few words the immense chasm 
that separated and still separates them from Froebel, and may 
perhaps understand better than he did, in his unworldly sim- 
plicity, the opposition, or the indifference more deadly than 
opposition, with which the educational authorities of the 
country met his efforts. He fondly believed himself called 



35 2 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

to be the apostle of a new em, and the world knew him not, 
and the new era has scarcely yet reached its dawn. 

The primitive condition of the village of Keilhau so late as 
1815 seems strange enough to us. "Although not poor,'' 
says Dr. Chr. Langethal, " the peasants had remained in the 
condition of the Middle Ages. Three houses retained the 
old form of Thuringian village architecture, and the date of 
1532 was to be seen over the door of one of them. The 
church, with a pretty tower, was nevertheless more like a 
cellar than the house of God, In the midst of the village a 
water-course marked the street, and five springs kept the 
road ever wet. Water-lizards and other creatures abounded. 
The living of the peasants was very simple. As had been 
done five hundred years before," says Dr. Chr. Langethal, 
" the Mayor still counted off on a notched stick the number 
of measures of wheat which each man was bound to pay as 
corn tax, or tithe. He gave forth orally to the peasants any 
new regulation of the Government ; and in order to keep up 
a military appearance, a day watchman paraded the village 
with a broad halberd over his shoulder. The dress of the 
old man was what he had worn in his youth, and that of the 
women descended from mother to daughter." This antique 
simplicity in his surroundings fell in right well with Froebel's 
plans ; simple fare, hardy habits, life in the midst of nature, 
was what he wished for his boys. Much of his teaching was 
given in the fields. Love for natural history and physical 
science was inspired as the first knowledge, was put within 
the children's own reach, and their own minds led to observe 
and seek for more. The heavens and the earth thus become 
the boundless text-book in which the learner is taught to 
read. 

Middendorff was the first of Froebel's friends to join him. 
He had been a private tutor for a time while finishing his 
theological studies, and now they were completed he an- 
nounced to his parents that their cherished wish of seeing 
him devote himself to the ministry could never be accom- 



APPENDIX. 353 

plished. It was a severe disappointment, but the young 
man was following his true vocation, and overcame all oppo- 
sition. After a time, Langethal, whose destination had also 
been the university, followed the same course. Somewhat 
later, Barop, a friend and brother-in-law of Middendorff, joined 
them, and became a mainstay of the whole enterprise. The 
friendship between the masters produced a marked influence 
on the school. Hanschmann quotes an interesting letter de- 
scribing the perfect harmony that reigned, and the affection 
and respect inspired among the boys, which seemed to render 
all outward forms of disciphne needless. It was a loving 
family, as Froebel had desired it should be ; and his own 
marriage with a lady warmly devoted to his views, and, later 
on, the marriage of Middendorff and Langethal to two of his 
own nieces, drew the ties yet closer, and gave that feminine 
element to the whole life which was necessary to complete 
and harmonize it. 

As an educational experiment, the school was in great 
measure a real success, though it did not reach Froebel's 
ideal. All mental requirements were richly provided for, and 
his own views of education carried out as far as time would 
allow, considering the imperative necessity of preparing the 
boys for the university ; but the material wants were met 
with great difficulty, and in the poorest fashion. The friends 
cast in their lot together without stint or reserve, and Chris- 
tian Froebel also gave help ; but even so, affairs did not 
prosper either at Griesheim or at Keilhau, where they re- 
moved as soon as a house had been prepared. Froebel was 
by nature a man in whose hands material interests could not 
prosper. He had no practical ability of that kind ; and being 
at that time engrossed with the interest of carrying into effect 
for the first time the cherished views which had become a 
part of his very life, he was probably less fit than ever to cal- 
culate and to dwell upon prudential and economical consid- 
erations. 

As a fact, although the number of scholars increased, the 



354 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

school never became a prosperous one while Froebel admin- 
istered its affairs ; and he had also the disappointment of 
feeling that his hope of exercising a powerful influence on 
national education was fallacious. Envy and misrepresenta- 
tion did their work here, as everywhere when new light and 
new enthusiasm meet old abuses and pedantic routine. The 
school held its ground, but it showed no signs of becoming 
the beginning of a wide reform. Froebel diligently exposed 
his views in writing ; pamphlets, articles in periodicals, were 
circulated among the public ; his great work on " The Edu- 
cation of Mankind" was also published towards the end of 
this period, but although the attention of many was roused, 
and some powerful friends were gained, that was all. 

Never, however, did leader or disciples lose heart or hope. 
Devoted to a great idea, they believed in its power to prevail 
ultimately, and every privation was endured, every sacrifice 
made, with cheerful alacrity. The more Froebel struggled 
against opposition, and was forced to express his views in 
answer to opponents, or to convince the indifferent, the more 
firmly did he grasp his central idea of education as develop- 
ment from within, following the course of all progress in na- 
ture and in the long education of mankind through the ages 
of the world's history. And the longer he was engaged prac- 
tically in education, the more was he convinced that this de- 
velopment of human capacity could not be effected through 
a learned education alone, but that the active powers must be 
exercised in production, in due proportion with the exercise 
'of the receptive faculties in acquiring knowledge ; and that 
without this simultaneous training a one-sided or a stunted 
growth must be the result. 

It was in order to win over some friends to his views that 
he went in 1831 to Frankfort, and there was induced to turn 
his attention to Switzerland as affording more hopeful ground 
for a reform of popular education than Germany, where official 
pedantry was too strong. The influence which swayed him 
most in this matter was that of Schneider, a man well known 



APPENDIX. 355 

as a composer, but who had begun life as a teacher under 
Pestalozzi, and who was possessed of a property on the httle 
Wartensee near Sempach, of which he offered the use to 
Froebel for the purpose of founding a school. They went to 
Switzerland together ; the Government of Lucerne, then under 
the influence of the Hberal revolution of 1830, gave the neces- 
sary authorization ; and soon the mother establishment at 
Keilhau had a promising daughter at Wartensee. We can- 
not here enter into the history of the struggle — the partial 
success, the persecution of fanatics, the disappointment as 
regards popular education — that assailed Froebel there and 
at Willislau, to which the school was transferred later. We 
can only just glance at the new devotion of his friends Mid- 
dendorff and Barop, whose exertions in this fresh field alone 
made it possible for the new school to hold its ground. 

When Barop, whom he had first called to his assistance, 
returned to Keilhau after a long absence from wife and child, 
Middendorff came to Willislau ; not without counting the cost 
of the separation from home, but strong in his determination 
to work for the idea ; and the separation lasted four years. 
" I stood," so he said later, " as at a dangerous post during a 
campaign, and dared not fail. The Catholic clergy pressed 
powerfully upon us. How could I, out of love for my own, 
fiy before their big guns ? Yet now I hardly understand how 
1 could do as I did ! " 

It was in Switzerland that Froebel began to train teachers 
and to work among little children, — both directions in which 
his influence was to be the most felt. Some of his games 
and exercises dated from this period ; and at one time sixty 
teachers, some sent by the Government of Berne, were train- 
ing under him at Burgdorf. 

Next, it was decided to found a similar institution near the 
parent school at Keilhau, and Froebel was full of joyful ac- 
tivity over this scheme, when the failu^-e of his wife's health 
determined their final return to Germany in 1836, and busi- 
ness connected with her mother's death fixed their residence 



35^ REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

in Berlin and Dresden. Being thus separated from his fellow- 
workers, he devoted himself to the study of infant schools, 
and to an active apostleship of his theory of education, both 
in writing and lecturing. It was in the midst of the growing 
success which attended his labors that the heavy blow of his 
wife's death fell upon him in 1839. -^^ ^^^t he seemed crushed, 
but again he plunged with new enthusiasm into his w^ork, and 
there found the best healing for his sorrow. The attention 
Froebel had given for a long time to infant schools indicates 
the point towards which his mind was ever turning. Through 
all his labor as a teacher he had been baffled by the impossi- 
bility of crowding into the years a boy spends at school the 
instruction necessary for his after success in the world, to- 
gether with that training of all the faculties, that harmonious 
development of the whole nature, which he held more im- 
portant than any knowledge. He had thought that better 
trained teachers would attain the object, but the result proved 
that the difficulty lay deeper still. It was in the condition of 
the children themselves, who came to school with undeveloped 
or misdirected faculties ; and, henceforth, he devoted himself 
to the subject of early education, which gradually absorbed 
him more and more. For years he had tried the education 
of boys through men, and had failed in reaching his ideal; he 
now turned his attention to preparing for school education by 
training the infant faculties through the hands of women. 
This phase of his activity, which was the most important of 
all in its lasting results, I shall pass more lightly over, because 
it is the one we are best acquainted with in this country. As 
the founder of the kindergarten system, Froebel is well 
known ; I have rather wished to show what led him to the 
conviction of the supreme importance of early education, 
what were the circumstances acting upon a character of a 
rare stamp which led to the creation of a method at once so 
simple and so philosophical, so scientific and so religious. 
The kindergarten was the work of his later years, — after 
time and thought, suffering and labor, had matured his mind 
and harmonized the results of his experience. 



APPENDIX. 357 

About a year after his wife's death he retired once more to 
the peaceful Thuringian valleys to try his new experiment. 
Hanschmann gives an animated account of the high festival 
held in honor of the foundation of the first kindergarten, the 
day for which was fixed on the anniversary of the birth of 
Gottenberg, — the advent of a new education linked with the 
discovery of the art which had been the greatest educational 
power in modern civilization. This practical rapprochement 
was most characteristic of Froebel, and the day was spent by 
him with the friends from Keilhau in a succession of religious 
services and popular rejoicings in the neighboring villages ; 
exulting in the full hope "of wide success and sympathy 
throughout the nation. 

The most important feature of this new life was the gather- 
ing of women who flocked to hear his teaching. Some time 
before, he had issued his call to his countrywomen, in which 
he strove to rouse them to a sense of the holy mission of 
womanhood, not to be accomplished by mere tender care of 
children, but by intelligent educational culture. And nobly 
did many respond to his call ; widows and maidens, the young 
and the middle-aged, those who had children, and those who 
sought to fit themselves to assist others in their Heaven-ap- 
pointed task, gathered round him in the village, and the vil- 
lage children were their pupils; and then his system of games 
and songs and exercises was gradually completed, and the 
old gray-haired man became the centre of a young and joy- 
ous life, full of hope and highest aspirations. 

From some of those who knew him then, especially from 
Frau von Marenholz-Biilow, we have received many details 
of his life and work at this period, of his appearance and his 
manner, as well as of his opinions recorded in daily conver- 
sation ; and if I had space I would willingly here have repro- 
duced some of these recollections, but I must hasten on to 
the close. Froebel's life is in fact more fitted to be the sub- 
ject of many papers than of one, but I am of necessity forced 
to make a rapid sketch of the whole, depriving myself of the 



358 REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. 

help of the quotations and illustrations that would have given 
life to my scanty narrative.* 

Froebel's second marriage took place in July, 185 1 ; the 
lady he married had from early youth been a frequent visitor 
at Keilhau, and had taken an earnest share in all his first 
wife's labors for the common cause. Her affection and sym- 
pathy shed a calm happiness over the close of his existence, 
which he has touchingly described himself. 

But once more sorrow and disappointment awaited him. 
Just when public attention appeared to be roused, and his 
views to be gaining ground, the Government at Berlin, with- 
out assigning any reason, passed a decree in August, 1851, 
forbidding any kindergarten to be established within Prussian 
dominions ; and so great was the influence of that power, and 
so easily were the fears of the lesser States excited when 
distant hints of democratic opinions were thrown out as the 
cause of the Berlin decree, that Froebel shortly met coldness 
or indifference where before he had received assistance and 
sympathy. This check may truly be said to have been his 
death-blow. Not all the peaceful content of his new-married 
home, not the devotion of friends, or the practical success in 
his immediate surroundings, could bear him up against this 
destruction of his long-cherished hope that he might yet be 
the regenerator of national education. The fervent lover of 
humanity saw his anticipations nipped in the bud, and age 
and toil had left him no power to react against the blow, 
though he remained the same outwardly, and worked to the^ 
end with unflagging energy. His seventieth birthday was 
kept in April, 1852, as a joyful festival by all who loved him, 
and he felt and responded to their love. But this was almost 
the closing scene; two months later the great heart that was 
all the warmer for friends and family, because it ever kindled 
for country and humanity had ceased to beat ; the voice that 
had always been heard uttering words of loftiest counsel and 

* See a work lately published, " Erinneningen an Fiiedrich Froebel," by 
Frail von Marenholz-Biilow, 



APPENDIX. ^ 359 

encouragement was silent ; his native hills, the fields, the 
woods he had loved from boyhood, and where he had learned 
to worship God in studying the forms of nature, knew him 
no more. But true hearts and noble minds had caught up 
the echo of his words, the inspiration of his thoughts. One 
who had been loving and faithful from the first, and who 
survived him too short a time, Middendorff, spoke a funeral 
oration, which moves us deeply now as we read it, and from 
which I wish I had time to quote, since I fain would borrow 
words more powerful than my own to aid me in leaving 
with you before we part a deeper impression of what that 
man was, who labored ceaselessly, and never knew a selfish 
aim ; who read the secrets of human nature in the child that 
he might train a more perfect manhood; who roused women, 
in the name of the nation and the race, to realize what was 
the power and the duty trusted to them by Heaven ; the man 
who was too much in advance of his time to be recognized 
as great while he lived, and whose work, now spreading in 
all lands, is the work which we have banded ourselves to- 
gether to forward among our own homes, as a new hope for 
future generations of our own people. 



THE END. 



Cambridge : Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 



Just Rbady. 
4 Nen Work hf i^ Author of the Young Folk^ History of th* UniUd StaUu 



YOUNG FOLKS' 

BooKOF American Exploi\ei\s 

BY 

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

Unifonn wiih the Young Folks' History of the U. S. One vol. Fully illustrated. 
Price, $1.50. 



The Young Folks' Book of American Explorers is as 
distinctly a " new departure " in our historical literature as was 
its predecessor, the "Young Folks' History of the United 
States." The " Book of American Explorers " is a series of 
narratives of discovery and adventure, told in the precise words 
of the discoverers themselves. It is a series of racy and inter- 
esting extracts from original narratives, or early translations of 
such narratives. These selections are made with care, so as to 
give a glimpse at the various nationalities engaged, — Norse* 
Spanish, French, Dutch, English, etc., — and are put together in 
order of time, with the needful notes and explanations. The 
ground covered may be seen by the following list of subjects 
treated in successive chapters : — The Traditions of the Norse- 
men ; Columbus and his Companions ; Cabot and Verrazzano ; 
The Strange Voyage of Cabeza de Vaca ; The French in Canada ; 
Hernando de Soto ; The French in Florida ; Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert ; The Lost Colonies of Virginia ; Unsuccessful New 
England Settlements ; Captain John Smith in Virginia ; Cham- 
plain on the War-Path ; Henry Hudson and the New Nether- 
lands ; The Pilgrims at Plymouth ; The Massachusetts Bay 
Colony.*^ 

Besides the legends of the Norsemen, the book makes an 
fclmost continuous tale of adventure from 1492 to 1630, all told 
in the words of the explorers themselves. This is, it is believea, 
a far more attractive way of telling than to rewrite them in the 
words of another ; and it is hoped that it may induce young 
people to explore for themselves the rich mine of historical 
adventure thus laid open. 

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston. 



Lee &^ Shcpard'^s Publications. 



" The collection has been most admirably made, and school children 

WILL especially BE PLEASED WITH IT AS THE DAY OF SPEAKING COMES." 

Boston Traveller, 

The Handy Speaker. 

Comprising fresh selections in Poetry and Prose, 

Humorous, Patriotic, and Pathetic. 

For Reading Clubs, School Declamation, Home and Public Entertainment. Com* 
Lining the Selections published in the Reading Club Nos. i, 2, 3, and 4. 

By GEO. M. BAKER. 

i6mo. Cloth. Over 400 pages $1.00. 



NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

•* The principal merit of this book is that the pieces are almost without exception 
new and very good. Many of the best things of modern times appear anonymously in 
newspapers ; and Mr. Baker's book shows that he has kept a sharp watch of this 
source iu making his selections. " Rutland Globe. 

" Under this title the four neat little volumes already issued, known as ' The Read- 
ing Club,' have been published in one handsome volume, which contains rising four 
hundred pages. It is edited by Mr. George M. Baker, than whom no man living is 
better adapted to this kind of work." Boston Home Jotcrnal. 

"All of our young friends who aspire to 'speak a piece' will find in its pages an 
abundance of unhackneyed literary matter, suitable for that purpose, ranging from 
'grave to gay, from lively to severe.' The teacher will find it of great use in making 
selections for public exhibitions, and the general reader can always moult a feather from 
the wing of care by the perusal of some one of the many humorous excerpts from the 
most popular writers of the day." Boston Courier. 

"This book will prove useful in all forms of public and private entertainment to 
which elocution, delineation, and mimicry lend their aid. The book also will be found 
not only instructive, but interesting to read, for in it one can laugh over the dry humor 
of Mark Twain, wonder at the queer fancies of Charles Dickens, delight in the pa- 
thetic ballads of Tennyson and Proctor, the heroic verses of Scott and M^caulay, and 
the quiet whisperings of Mrs. Hemans, Owen Meredith, and Miss Mulock." Norwich 
Bulletin. 

" To amply provide for the coming elocutionists' wants seems to be the aim of Mr. 
Baker, as his new work with the above title indicates. The old ' pieces ' have been 
spoken so many times that they are worn out ; but here is a new supply which cannot 
fail of being duly ectimatcd." Louisville Journal. 



Sold by all booksellers, and sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. 

LEE k SHEPAED, Publishers, Boston. 



BOOKS BY SOPHIE MA Y. 



Little Prudy Stories. 

Six vols., handsomely illustrated, in a neat box. 
Per vol. 75 cts. 
LITTLE PRUDY. 

LITTLE PPcUDY'S SISTER SUSY. 

LITTLE PRUDY' S CAPTAIX HORACE. 

LITTLE TRUDY'S COUSIN GRACE. 

LITTLE PRUDTS STORY BOOK. 

LITTLE TRUDY'S DOTTY DIMPLE. 



Little Prudy's Flyaway Series. 

Six vols. Illustrated. Per vol. 75 cts. 
LITTLE FOLKS ASTRAY. 

PRUDY KEEP IX G HOUSE. 

AUNT MADGE'S STORY. 

LITTLE GRA NDMO THER. 

LITTLE GRANDPA THER. 

MIS S THISTL ED O WN. 



Dotty Dimple Stories. 

Complete in six vols. Illustrated. 
Per vol. 75 cts. 

DOTTY DIMPLE AT HER GRANDMOTHERS. 
DOTTY DIMPLE AT HOME. 

DOTTY DIMPLE OUT WEST. 

DOTTY DIMPLE AT PLAY. 

DOTTY DIMPLE AT SCHOOL. 

DOTTY DIMPLE'S FLYAWAY. 



Flaxie Frizzle Stories. 

To be completed in six vols. Illustrated. 
Per vol. 75 cts. 



1. FLAXIE FRIZZLE. 



2. DOCTOR PAPA. 



(Others in press.) 



laST'SoId by all Bookseller!^ and Nctcsdealei-s, awl sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt t>f 
price, by 

JjEE, &, SIIf:PARI>, Publishers, JSoston. 



NEW BOOKS BY SOPHIE MAY. 



" IHoi* Cliilclren of a ILiax'ger GJ-roAvtli." 

"A novel and ingenious idea " on which to found a story, is that of 

THE ASBURY TWINS. 

By SOPHIE MAY, antho- of "The Doctor's Daughter," "Our Helen," &c. 
12JU0. Cloth, llhistraied. $1.75. 

A sparkling story, full of incident, adventure, and travel. The first page tells 
how the story came to be written, thus : — 

"Odcar!" said I. "Ditto," said she. The rain was dripping into the cistern 
monotonously; the old year had just died of water on tlie brum, and here we were 
ill the midst of a January thaw. 

" The weatlier is a little depressing," said I, " and the evenings are long. We 
need a special entertahiment." 

" Lets write the liistory of our lives," suggested Van, playfully. I started up. 

" Van Asbury, well do it." 

" Well, j'ou write mine, Vic, and I'll write yours." 

" No ; let's have it in the same book," said I. " You take one chapter and I 
another." 

" That style of memoir is not customary," objected Van. 

"Xcitlicr are twins customary, my love, but you see they are permitted; and 
really. Van, you and I have been together so much, and have become so mixed, 
tliat our story can't be told in any other way." 

And before she really knew I was in earnest, I dipped my pen into the head 
of the cross old man who served us as an inkstand, and began. 



' A genu 



ine home story for grown-up folks," is the story of 

Our Helen. 



By SOPHIE MAY. z2mo. Cloth. Ilhistrated. ^1.75. 
"Charmingly told, full of Incident, and pure in Tone." A quotation or two will 

exhibit tlie autlior's keen sense of humur, which so often crops out. 

"There don't seem to be any sacredness at Sister Page's about Sunday ; they 
don't even have baked beans for breakfast, " said Miss Bumpus. Mrs. Page, mori- 
bund in her own opinion, calls to her husband. ' Come in here, Ozem, ' said she 
faintly, as his figure appeared in the doorway, "for I'm dying; but don't you 
make tracks on my nice floor.' Ozem rubbed his dusty boots with C,\\ft deliberation, 
ate a twisted doughnut and a half, and then stole softly and mournfully to the bed- 
side of the dying woman. 

"The most fascinating book I ever read," declares a young critic not at all critical 
but very aesthetic, is 

The DOCTOR'S Daughter. 

By SOPHIE MAY. \2mo. Cloth. Illiistrnted. ^1.50. 

"A delightful book, original and enjoyable," says the B?-o7unville Echo. 

" A fascinating story, unfolding, with artistic touch, the young life of one of our 
impulsive, sharp-witted, transparent, and pure-minded girls of the nineteenth cen- 
tury," says The Contributor, Boston. 



B3~ Sold by all Booksellers and Newsdealers, and sent b'j mail, postpaid, on receipt of 
\)rice, hy 

Ii£X: &> SII£PAliI>, Publishers, Boston. 



